USA Basketball Faces Group Of Death In Elimination Stage

USA Basketball has a tough path to Olympic gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics. They will have to take on a brutal schedule as elimination play begins.

USA Basketball looked shaky towards the end of the group stage of play during the 2016 Rio Olympics.

They won their last two games by a combined six points against Serbia and a Tony Parker-less France team. Prior to those games, they squeezed by Australia with a 10-point win. All of this comes after beating China and Venezuela by an average of 50.5 points per game.

As single elimination play begins, USA Basketball has the toughest half of the bracket than that of Australia.

The United States open the tournament up with a game against Argentina, who finished group play with a 3-2 record. Their signature win came in a double overtime battle against host-nation Brazil with a 111-107 win that would end up eliminating the hosts.

Argentina’s national team features NBA veterans Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola. They also have former NBA players Andres Nocioni and Carlos Delfino. Despite defeating Argentina 111-74 in their first exhibition game in Las Vegas, NV, the Americans can’t take anything for granted with their recent lapses in defense.

USA Basketball’s game against Argentina may not be the biggest concern of the fans, though. While Argentina poses a difficult threat, the team awaiting the U.S. could provide the biggest scare.

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The way it played out, Spain and France will play one another with the winner likely getting an opportunity to knock out the heavy favorites in the second round. As previously mentioned, France will be a difficult team to beat after only winning by three earlier in the group stage.

Spain didn’t pose a threat to USA Basketball’s 2012 Olympic gold medal chances, however with so many players sitting out the 2016 Olympics for the U.S., it could be a different story. Spain features Ricky Rubio, Pau Gasol, Jose Calderon and Nikola Mirotic. Their NBA-level talent goes beyond that with former and future players. Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Rodriguez, Juan Carlos Navarro, Victor Claver, Alex Abrines and Willy Hernangomez all add to Spain’s depth.

USA Basketball has a tough path to reach the Olympic finals. Now they need to be focused and communicate with one another on defense to move past their competition. As Scola and Ginobili agreed, USA’s biggest opponent is themselves.

Kyrie Irving has been on the big stage before, hitting the championship-winning shot in the NBA Finals. Irving believes that winning a gold medal at the Olympics is just as important as a NBA Championship, and now he has the opportunity to win both in the same summer.