Olympic Basketball 2016: Scores, Highlights and Reaction for Saturday's Results

One day after the opening ceremony in Rio, Saturday marked the start of both the men's and women's basketball competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics. The slate included one of the Games' top attractions: the typically dominant United States men's squad.

On the women's side, the Brazil team highlighted the action. The host nation is a medal hopeful and started its journey toward a potential podium finish with a tough test against an Australian team with high hopes of its own over the next few weeks.

So let's check out all of the details for Saturday's preliminary games, which will get updated through the conclusion of play. That's followed by a recap of the action.

Saturday Schedule and Results

Event	Group	Matchup	Result/Time (ET)
Women's	A	Turkey vs. France	55-39 FRA
Men's	A	Australia vs. France	87-66 AUS
Women's	B	China vs. Canada	90-68 CAN
Women's	A	Brazil vs. Australia	84-66 AUS
Men's	A	China vs. United States	119-62 USA
Women's	A	Belarus vs. Japan	77-73 JPN
Men's	A	Venezuela vs. Serbia	9:30 p.m.

Women's Tournament

France bounced back from a sluggish first quarter by turning up the defensive intensity en route to a 16-point victory over Turkey.

The France squad, which is ranked fourth in the world, trailed by eight after the first quarter. It held Turkey to just three points in the second period, however, which allowed Valerie Garnier's group to gain control before halftime, and the team never looked back.

Sarah Michel led the way with 14 points on the strength of four three-pointers to go along with eight rebounds, four steals and two assists. Endy Miyem was the only other player to reach double figures for France, chipping in 14 points of her own in the win.

Nevriye Yilmaz had a strong outing for Turkey with 16 points and six rebounds. She didn't get much help from her teammates, however, as the team shot just 24 percent from the field. Birsel Vardarli Demirmen exemplified those struggles, missing all nine of her shots from inside the arc.

Both teams will be right back in action Sunday. France is slated to take on Belarus in another game it should handle quite comfortably before heading into back-to-back marquee battles against Australia and the host nation of Brazil.

Meanwhile, Turkey must get ready for a litmus test against the Aussies. It's likely battling Belarus and Japan for the fourth spot out of Group A, so getting ready for those two games is the most important thing at this stage of the event.

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Canada head coach Lisa Thomaidis couldn't have asked for a much better start as her side put on an offensive show to cruise past China.

The Canadians shot 50 percent from the field, including 11 of 17 from three-point range, while racking up 31 assists compared to 15 turnovers. Tamara Tatham paced the offense with 20 points and also chipped in six boards.

China had some strong stretches of its own on offense. Nan Chen put up 13 points and Xiaojia Chen added 12. It will be extremely difficult to fight its way out of Group B if the routine mistakes such as missed assignments and rotations aren't cleaned up, though.

The good news for the Chinese team is that it has an off day tomorrow. Coach Tom Maher will surely spend a lot of that time working on the defensive issues because China has a winnable game on tap against Senegal on Monday.

Canada also returns to the floor Monday for a battle with Serbia. A victory there and the team could start to emerge as potential sleeper for a medal because there's a void that must be filled behind the heavily favored United States.

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Australia prevented a storybook start for Brazil as the Opals erased an early 10-point deficit to score a convincing 18-point victory to open the tournament.

The host nation got the crowd involved early with a terrific first quarter. Unfortunately for the Brazilians, the 24 points in that quarter ended up being nine more than it scored in any other period, which left the door open for the Aussie comeback.

The three-headed attack of Liz Cambage, Leilani Mitchell and Penny Taylor combined for 55 points in the victory. Cambage also had 14 rebounds while Marianna Tolo chipped in nine points and four boards for the Opals.

It's the type of effort that should make head coach Brendan Joyce happy. He stated coming into the tournament he wanted to see the team at least reach the semifinals in the event, per Omnisport (via AOL UK), and this is a strong first step in the right direction.

Iziane Castro Marques was the lone bright spot for Brazil in the lopsided defeat. She put up 25 points, five rebounds and two assists. Alas, no other player scored more than 11 points, which prevented the hosts from keeping pace with the talented Aussies.

Brazil will look to get in the win column Monday against Japan. While it's too early for any game to be considered must-win, there's no doubt that contest is crucial if the host nation wants to guarantee itself a spot in the top four of Group A.

Australia is right back in action tomorrow for what should be a tougher test for its offense against Turkey. A deep run and potentially a medal is certainly within reason if the Opals can keep executing as well as they did against Brazil.

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Belarus trimmed the deficit to two points with 14 seconds remaining, but Asami Yoshida nailed two critical free throws to secure a 77-73 victory for Japan to begin the team's stay at the 2016 Olympics.

Yoshida only scored eight points for the game, but she stepped up when her team needed her the most. In such a tight affair, the fact she made four of her five attempts from the charity stripe unquestionably played a role in Japan's win. Yoshida also made up for her lack of scoring output by grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out eight assists.

Mika Kurihara led the team with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting. She did the bulk of her damage from beyond the arc, going 6-of-10 from three-point range. Kurihara added three rebounds and an assist to a strong performance.

Four different Belarusian players scored in double figures, with Yelena Leuchanka's 15 points leading the way. Leuchanka nearly posted a double-double after recording nine rebounds. Katsiaryna Snytsina chipped in with 14 points of her own.

Men's Tournament

Alarm bells may already be sounding for France. Although an opening loss to Australia was always a possibility, getting blown out certainly wasn't expected. But the Boomers controlled the game throughout en route to a 21-point triumph.

San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker held up his end of the bargain for the Blues, scoring 18 points in 20 minutes. None of the team's other big names—Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw or Nando de Colo—reached double figures, though.

It was a far more complete performance for Australia. Andrew Bogut made nine of his 10 shots to post 18 points along with five assists and four rebounds. Patty Mills added 21 points as the Aussies shot 50 percent from the field as a team.

Olgun Uluc of Fox Sports Australia described the mismatch at one end of the floor:

Even though France is still likely to reach the quarterfinals barring a complete collapse, this loss raised a lot of questions about how dangerous the team is in terms of medal contention. There's a boatload of work to do starting Monday against China.

On the flip side, the outlook is suddenly looking much brighter for Australia. The Boomers' ability to utilize an efficient inside-outside offensive attack is going to cause a lot of problems for opposing defenses. Earning at least the second seed in Group A is now a realistic goal.

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The United States more than lived up to the hype with a dominant 119-62 win over China.

Former NBA veteran Yi Jianlian accounted for a little over 40 percent of China's offensive output. His 25 points were far and away tops on the team, and he also grabbed six boards.

Aside from Yi, though, China had little in the wahttp://bleacherreport.com/article/2656208/newy of scoring.

On the other side, Kevin Durant's 25 points set the tone for the United States. Fans of the Golden State Warriors will hope Saturday isn't a sign of things to come. Durant's new teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green combined to score five points on 2-of-9 shooting.

CSN Bay Area's Ray Ratto figures a section of critics are already voicing their concerns with Durant:

Team USA dominated China on the boards, out-rebounding them 52-29. The U.S. also forced China to commit 24 turnovers.

With Durant setting the pace, DeMarcus Cousins and Paul George provided plenty of support with 17 and 15 points, respectively.

All game statistics courtesy of the Olympics' official site.