Team USA Basketball 2012: Ranking the Americans' Competition in the Group Stage

Team USA will be looking to prove that it could hang with the original Dream Team when LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Americans take the court in London. 

Play starts in the group stage, and the United States will first be in action against France on July 29 at 2:30 p.m. BST. After five games, the Americans will move on to the elimination stage, barring any unforeseen changes. 

If Team USA doesn't advance past the group stage—well, you don't even need to worry about that because it's not going to happen. 

Here's how the competition stacks up in the group stage. As a point of reference, the United States come in at No. 1 in the FIBA rankings with 2,679.8 points. 

5. Tunisia, Game 2 on July 31 at 10:15 p.m. BST

This Tunisian team is making their first appearance in the Olympics, but they're coming off a stellar performance at the 2011 FIBA Africa Championship where they beat Angola by 11 points to earn a berth at London. 

Led by Macram Ben Romdhane, this team is without an NBA player and will most likely struggle to win a single game during the group stage. 

Much more of a defensive team than an offensive one, the Tunisians are going to struggle to score as many points throughout all four quarters as the Americans score in the first half.

FIBA Ranking: No. 38 (87.6 points)  

 

4. Nigeria, Game 3 on Aug. 2 at 10:15 p.m. BST

With Al-Farouq Aminu and Ike Diogu leading the charge, the Nigerians stormed past the Dominican Republic in the championship game of the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament to advance to their first Olympic stage. 

Ade Dagunduro is another player to keep an eye on as he comes off the bench to provide a nice scoring and facilitating boost for the squad, but overall, there isn't enough talent here to compete. 

Nigeria are also a defense-oriented team, but they possess a little more offensive firepower than Tunisia.

FIBA Ranking: No. 23 (199.5 points) 

3. Lithuania, Game 4 on Aug. 4 at 2:30 p.m. BST

Now we take a fairly large jump up to the Lithuanian team, a squad capable of scoring at a high level but incapable of completely shutting down opponents.

Jonas Valanciunas, an incoming rookie for the Toronto Raptors who was a lottery pick in 2011, is the best player on this team, but hardcore NBA fans might also recognize names like Linas Kleiza, Darius Songaila and Sarunas Jasikevicius.

Without center Robertas Javtokas holding down the fort in the paint, though, Lithuania's bid to take home a medal for the first time since 2000 is looking unlikely at best.

FIBA Ranking: No. 6 (955.5 points) 

 

2. France, Game 1 on July 29 at 2:30 p.m. BST

With Tony Parker running the show, and Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, Kevin Seraphin and Ronny Turiaf all helping to contribute for France, this team has the ability to hang with the Americans for at least a quarter or two. 

The French team is solid across the board and can capably play both offense and defense, but they don't have the depth or star power necessary to keep up with either of the top two teams in this group. 

Parker is good enough that he can make things happen, but it's hard for him to facilitate quite as much when he's not surrounded by talents like Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. The presence of Joakim Noah would have helped quite a bit here.  

FIBA Ranking: No. 8 (823.5 points)

 

1. Argentina, Game 5 on Aug. 6 at 10:15 p.m. BST

If it wasn't for Team USA, Argentina would be the heavy favorite to sweep through this group.

The Argentinians have been consistently solid for a while now after winning the gold medal in 2004 and the bronze in 2008. They'll look to improve on that last finish and could very well do so if Ginobili is on top of his game.

With Luis Scola, Andres Nocioni and Carlos Delfino also breaking ranks from the NBA to join Ginobili in London, this is a deep and offensively talented team. Barely ranked behind the Russians, Argentina are better than the rest of Team USA's competition in this group.

There's still a huge talent gap between the Americans and the Argentinians, though. 

FIBA Ranking: No. 4 (1,218 points)