VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France (AP) — The U.S. will face Brazil in the quarterfinals of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament in Paris on Tuesday, and a semifinal matchup against Serbia or Australia awaits the Americans if they advance to the medal round.
And the earliest the U.S. could see Germany, Canada or France is the final.
The other win-or-go-home quarterfinal games on Tuesday: Victor Wembanyama and France will take on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Canada, reigning World Cup champion Germany will face Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece, while defending Olympic bronze medalist Australia drew a matchup with reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and Serbia.
Tuesday’s losers are done, and Tuesday’s winners play Thursday in the semifinals, with the U.S.-Brazil winner set to face the Serbia-Australia and the Germany-Greece winner taking on the France-Canada winner. Games for the gold and bronze medals in Paris are next Saturday, the next-to-last day of the Paris Games.
Puerto Rico, Spain, South Sudan and Japan were eliminated after the group stage.
The U.S. (3-0) locked up the No. 1 overall seed — and in theory, the easiest quarterfinal matchup — on Saturday with its 104-83 win over Puerto Rico.
“They’re all excellent teams, well-coached,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said of the quarterfinalists. “But Brazil is our focus.”
Germany (3-0) is the No. 2 seed, finishing behind the U.S. for the top spot because of the point-differential tiebreaker. The Americans outscored their three group-stage opponents by 67 points; Germany outscored its three group-stage opponents by 47 points. Canada (3-0) is the No. 3 seed, getting that spot behind the U.S. and Germany because it had only a plus-20 differential in group play.
“You hope you get a little bit easier team (in the quarterfinals),” Germany coach Gordie Herbert said of finishing with a high seed coming out of group play, “but I think you really don’t because every team here is really good.”
The marquee matchup Tuesday almost certainly will be France-Canada.
France lost its group finale to Germany on Friday night, a defeat that meant the hosts fell into a significantly tougher draw than they would have otherwise. And now France must beat an unbeaten Canada team, or else it won’t medal in Paris in what will be a giant disappointment.
“I think we’ve all got the good will, the good energy,” Wembanyama said. “But now I think we’ve got to trust the coaching more, just trust our teammates more and do the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheets — setting screens, boxing out, all that.”
France coach Vincent Collet said his team can use Canada’s higher seeding to its advantage.
“Now, it’s even. We will be 0-0 on Tuesday,” Collet said. “They have more to lose than us in this position.”
It’s a tough draw for Canada as well: It gets the home team, and Wembanyama, just to have a chance of advancing. Canada hasn’t medaled at the Olympics since taking the silver medal in 1936, the infamous 19-8 loss on an outdoor court in a rainstorm to the U.S.
“We played a lot of really good teams, and we beat them all,” Canada guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “There are some things we can clean up for sure, but we’ll take it.”
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