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Olympic Basketball 2021: Men's Quarters TV Schedule, Live Stream and Odds
August 2, 2021
Luka Doncic has never lost an international basketball game with Slovenia.
His 16-0 record will be put to the test in the Tokyo Olympics men's basketball knockout round, where most of the world's top teams will be fighting for a gold medal.
Slovenia kicks off the four-game slate that starts Monday night and goes deep into Tuesday morning in the Eastern time zone.
Doncic and Co. placed first in Group C that contained Spain and Argentina to land a quarterfinal meeting with Germany.
The United States is on the opposite side of the knockout-round bracket. Kevin Durant and Co. take on Spain on Tuesday morning and would face the winner of the Australia-Argentina matchup.
Slovenia is on what appears to be the easier side of the bracket that also contains Italy and France.
Men's Basketball Quarterfinal Schedule
All Times ET; Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
Monday, August 2
Slovenia (-14) vs. Germany (9 p.m.)
Tuesday, August 3
United States (-12) vs. Spain (12:40 a.m.)
Italy vs. France (-8.5) (4:20 a.m.)
Australia (-8.5) vs. Argentina (8 a.m.)
All games can be live-streamed on NBCOlympics.com and NBC Sports app.
Slovenia vs. Germany
Slovenia had the best group-stage performance of any quarterfinalist.
The Doncic-led team went 3-0 and had a point differential of +61, which was 17 better than France's margins of victory.
Slovenia eclipsed the 100-point mark in its first two games against Argentina and Japan, and it put up 95 points versus Spain in the final group contest.
By beating Spain and Argentina, Slovenia proved itself on the international stage and that it can put a strong supporting cast around Doncic.
Doncic was the fourth-highest scorer on his own team in the win over Spain. Vlatko Cancar of the Denver Nuggets led Slovenia with 22 to beat the Spaniards.
The performance against Spain showed that Slovenia can win without Doncic posting a high point total, like he did in the opener against Argentina.
The three high-scoring wins put Slovenia on the easier side of the bracket, and it should find itself in one of the two medal games.
Germany suffered a pair of double-digit defeats to Australia and Italy in the group stage. Its only win came against Nigeria, and it barely got into the final eight as the second-best third-place team.
Unless Germany turns around its form against the top teams in a single game, it should be sent home from the Tokyo Games.
The biggest question is whether Slovenia can cover the 14-point spread. Germany lost to Italy by 10 points and fell to Australia by 13 points.
Since Slovenia appears to be in the same echelon as Australia, you would think a double-digit win is in the cards.
United States vs. Spain
The second quarterfinal of the men's tournament is a final-worthy matchup.
The United States and Spain have been gold-medal contenders for quite some time, but only one of them will earn a chance to play to get into the title match.
The Americans recovered from their opening loss to France by beating Iran and Czech Republic, two teams they were supposed to beat.
Gregg Popovich's team now faces a challenge to play well against one of the game's established powers. It was unable to do that versus France.
The good news for the United States is Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday and Devin Booker are fully acclimated to the group now. They arrived within 24 hours of the France game after their participation in the NBA Finals.
Spain did not blow any of its opponents away in group stage. It had wins of 11 and 10 points over Japan and Argentina and then fell to Slovenia.
The United States has the best overall talent, but Spain has enough size in the paint that could frustrate the small American roster.
Spain's problem could be keeping pace with the United States. It has not scored over 90 points at the Olympics, while the United States is coming off back-to-back 100-point performances.
If the United States can use what it learned from the wins over Iran and Czech Republic and translate that to a matchup with a bigger team, it should squeeze out the win and land in the semifinals.
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