Olympics Men’s Basketball: Nigeria vs Spain
Coming into the 2016 Rio Olympics men’s basketball competition, obviously the United States were looked at as the favorites to win gold. However, the favorites to win the silver medal would indubitably have been the talented and veteran Spain squad. With the likes of Pau Gasol, Ricky Rubio, Sergio Llull, and Nikola Mirotic (to name a few) on the team, they were expected to compete with the US for gold and definitely medal. As they go to take on Nigeria on Day 6 of Rio 2016 on Thursday, August 11, though, Spain is still looking for their first win.
Granted, it’s not as if Spain have been going out and getting beaten into the ground thus far in Rio. They opened their Olympics men’s basketball competition with a two-point loss to Croatia that was sealed with a last-second block by Dario Saric. Then they lost on a tip-in with under six seconds left to Brazil in their second game, going down by only one point. However close the games were, though, Spain is still winless and currently out of the top-four that advance in Group B.
Nigeria is also looking for their first win, but have had a vastly different go of it than Spain up to this point in Olympics men’s basketball. They were absolutely demolished in their opening game against Argentina, losing by 28 points. However, they played a tough Lithuania team close in their second game, losing by only nine points after fighting to the very end. Essentially, it’s hard to know what to expect from Nigeria against Spain as it could seemingly vary depending on the day.
Details for Nigeria vs Spain on Thursday are below:
Date: Thursday, August 11
Start Time: 6 p.m. ET
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
TV Info: Olympics Basketball Channel
Live Stream: NBCOlympics.com
This matchup will be broadcast live on TV on the Olympics Basketball Channel when it tips off at 6 p.m. ET. However, you can also live stream the action thanks to NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. All you’ll have to do is login to either service using a cable or satellite subscription and you’ll be ready to roll.