London 2012: 4 Teams That Could Knock off the U.S. Olympic Basketball Team

The U.S. Olympic basketball team has been placed in one of the tougher groups in this year's summer games, and a few of the teams they will face have a legitimate shot at taking down this version of the dream team.

The team will be sorely lacking a true passing point guard outside of Chris Paul, and the frontcourt has been decimated by injury.

The U.S. team was placed in group A, along with with talented squads from Argentina, Tunisia and France.

Argentina won gold in 2004 and will be led by Manu Ginobili.

France is also led by a San Antonio Spur, and Tony Parker will help France be a feisty opponent in group A.

Tunisia gave the U.S. a run for its money in the first half of the game during the 2010 FIBA World Championship, and it won the AfroBasket tournament to earn its first ever Olympic berth.

Every team is looking to shock the world by knocking off the American squad. Here are four teams that have a chance at it.

Argentina

Argentina is led by Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola.

Ginobili is a skilled scorer who excels in the international game, and with the help of Luis Scola, Argentina won the gold medal in the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship.

Argentina is one of the top five teams in the world and will be a tough test for the U.S.

France

With Tony Parker and Joakim Noah leading the charge, France could very well make same noise in the group play.

Despite the stiff competition in Group A, France will benefit greatly by having a skilled international player like Parker running point. Also, the addition of a big guy like Noah will come in handy.

Tony Parker will be a real difference maker and could help lead France to a medal finish in 2012.

Tunisia

This is an unlikely scenario, but Tunisia was a true Cinderella team in the AfroBasket tournament when it knocked off Angola.

The team has a true center in Salah Mejri, who towers at over 7'0". In the unpredictable world of group play, Tunisia might catch the same lightning in a bottle.

Spain

This is the team that battled the U.S. in a tightly contested gold medal game, and Spain also happens to be the second-ranked squad in the world.

Spain boasts two formidable seven-footers playing down low in Marc and Pau Gasol.

America is already thin in the frontcourt with Dwight Howard and LaMarcus Aldridge injured.

Losing Ricky Rubio to injury doesn't help, but Spain is one of the deepest rosters in the world. The U.S. is lucky they won't be seeing Spain in group play.