Olympics Men’s Basketball: United States vs Serbia
USA Basketball definitely has entered the ringer of the Olympics men’s basketball competition. Prior to their last outing, they’d looked like the clear favorites and looked near infallible. While they may still be the favorites for the gold medal, they are now clearly vulnerable. It’s an odd time for that realization to occur considering they’re now at the toughest part of the group stage. However, they’ll have a chance to make it all go away on Friday as they take on Serbia.
Carmelo Antony and Kyrie Irving were massively important for the United States in the win over Australia. However, what was curious was how absent the likes of DeMarcus Cousins and DeAndre Jordan were. The impact of the two big centers was negated up against other NBA-calbier bigs to a degree. If they’re going to succeed, the Americans have to avoid that happening again. It also surely wouldn’t hurt if Kevin Durant could get rolling again. It all could have been a fluke against the Aussies, but it’ll take a strong effort on Friday to prove that was the case.
Serbia on the other hand look like a quiet killer in this Olympics men’s basketball competition. They’re a teams possessing clear NBA talent like Nikola Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovic, but they also have top European talent playing abroad as well. While it may not always be pretty, this Serbia team plays unafraid. Against a giant like Team USA, that can’t be understated and could cause the United States an issue or two.
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Details for Friday’s Olympics men’s basketball game are below:
Date: Friday, August 12
Start Time: 6 p.m. ET
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Arena: Carioca Arena 1
TV Info: NBCSN, Olympics Basketball Channel
Live Stream: NBCOlympics.com
This matchup will be broadcast live on TV on both NBCSN and the Olympics Basketball Channel. Live streaming will also be available through NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. Access both services via logging in with a cable or satellite subscription.