Olympic Basketball 2016: TV Schedule, Live Stream and Odds for Day 7
Australia's men's basketball team gave Team USA its first real test at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In the process, it may have exposed flaws for the overwhelming favorite.
Both teams will be in action again Friday, with an eye toward an eventual rematch in the medal round. USA will take on Nikola Jokic and Serbia, while Australia should easily move to 3-1 against China.
Team USA's women will also be back on the court, as they face Connecticut's Kia Nurse and Canada.
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A complete schedule of Friday's action, as well as title odds, can be found below.
| Men | ||||
| A | 1:15 p.m. ET | China | Australia | |
| A | 6 p.m. ET | USA | Serbia | NBCSN |
| A | 9:30 p.m. ET | France | Venezuela | |
| Women | ||||
| B | 11:15 a.m. ET | Serbia | China | |
| B | 2:30 p.m. ET | Canada | USA | NBCSN |
| B | 4:45 p.m. ET | Spain | Senegal |
| USA | 1-19 |
| Australia | 20-1 |
| Argentina | 25-1 |
| Serbia | 25-1 |
| France | 30-1 |
| Spain | 30-1 |
| Lithuania | 30-1 |
| Brazil | 50-1 |
| Croatia | 50-1 |
| Venezuela | 1,000-1 |
| Nigeria | 2,000-1 |
| China | 4,000-1 |
Full group listings and standings, as well as live streams of all the games, can be found at NBCOlympics.com.
Is This Now a Race for Bronze?
Even after playing Team USA, an undefeated team with a 37-point average margin of victory, Australia has the third-best point differential at the Olympics.
And the Aussies are the only group that's given the Americans a hint of a challenge. Sam Amick of USA Today shared Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski's thoughts after the game:
The team-first mentality and toughness of Australia exposed two potential vulnerabilities for Team USA: physical play and reliance on isolations.
Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes wrote about the first one:
"Unfazed by the U.S.' depth and athleticism, the Aussies played exactly the type of aggressive, irritating, physical ball you'd expect from a team led by Matthew Dellavedova and Andrew Bogut.
Delly goaded Paul George into a technical foul during the game's first three minutes, which in hindsight should have been the first signal that Australia was dictating the terms of engagement.
"
Getting under the opposition's skin has long been a specialty of Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellavedova. And there's a general toughness among Australian players that might make them the only bunch in Rio who can frustrate Team USA.
As for the second weakness, avoiding selfishness is completely up to the Americans. On several possessions, they ran an offense for two or three passes before someone would hijack it in favor of an isolation.
They can work on that against a Serbian team with significantly fewer NBA defenders. Jokic may provide a bit of a challenge at the rim, but if USA is willing to reverse the ball more than it has, it should be able to get him out of position.
Australia, meanwhile, should have no trouble bouncing back from the tough loss to USA. China's 0-3, with a whopping average margin of defeat of 29.7 points.
Battle of the Undefeated
| USA | 1-12 |
| Australia | 8.5-1 |
| Spain | 14-1 |
| France | 20-1 |
| Serbia | 28-1 |
| Brazil | 33-1 |
| Canada | 40-1 |
| Turkey | 50-1 |
| Belarus | 125-1 |
| China | 150-1 |
| Japan | 500-1 |
| Senegal | 750-1 |
Canada's and Team USA's women are both 3-0. The big difference, of course, is that USA's point differential is a whopping 95 points better.
And if USA's men have been dominant, the women have been smothering. Diana Taurasi has led the series of blowouts. She cruised past the record for threes in a game against Serbia, per NBCOlympics.com's Bill Leopold:
"Diana Taurasi threatened to break the single game U.S. Olympic three-point record in the United States’ first game of the Rio Olympic tournament when she tied her own record with five three-pointers.
In their third game, she tied her own record again with 6:14 left in the second quarter and with 8:44 remaining in the third, Taurasi broke the U.S. Olympic record with her sixth three in the game. Taurasi started the game four-of-five from behind the line.
"
For the tournament, USA is shooting 41.8 percent from deep and making nearly eight treys per game. And as solid as Nurse and the rest of the Canadians have been, keeping pace with the most prolific offense in Rio borders on impossible.
Elsewhere on the Women's Side
Serbia and China, two teams with losing records, will face off. Serbia should be in desperation mode, as another loss would make them 0-4 and all but done in Rio.
Spain will also face Senegal. Keep an eye on 2-1 Spain's Alba Torrens, who enters as the tournament's third-leading scorer at 19.7 points per game.
Will France Work Its Way Back into Medal Contention?
After opening the 2016 Games with a 21-point loss to Australia, doubt understandably clouded France's path to the medal stand. It has recovered with back-to-back wins against China and Serbia, though. And beating Venezuela would move France to 3-1 and a comfy spot in the group standings.
Without a single NBA player on its roster, it's tough to imagine Venezuela competing with the likes of league veterans like Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Gobert and Boris Diaw.
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