Tokyo Olympics Basketball: Top 3 matchups to watch for
With the NBA Finals over, fans can now turn their attention to the Tokyo Olympics basketball tournament which begins on Sunday (July 25). Team USA will enter the tournament as favorites to win the gold medal. They will face stiff opposition from the likes of Spain and Australia, with the latter beating the USA in Las Vegas just over a week ago.
The tournament is split into three groups of four sides each with eight sides progressing into the quarter-finals. Group games will take place up until Sunday, 1st of August while the Gold Medal match will be played on Saturday, 7th of August.
Following the most recent FIBA World Rankings, six of the top ten teams will be competing, which should make for some exciting group stage encounters. We will highlight the top three match-ups in this article.
Top 3 Tokyo Olympics Basketball games to tune into
There is a lot of expectation on Team USA to perform at this summer's Tokyo Olympics Basketball tournament. However, as we have seen in their exhibition matches recently, their opponents are not going to go down without a fight and boast their own array of NBA talent.
Coaches and players alike know how to match up against the USA's All-Star roster and will be determined to be the team that topples the juggernaut of the tournament. All of this amounts to what should be a very exciting fortnight of quality basketball.
#3 Australia vs Germany (July 31st, 4:20AM ET)
On the second weekend of the Tokyo Olympics basketball action, most of the teams will be vying to finish top of their groups or qualify via the best third-placed sides route. This will certainly be the case in Group B, as one of the Games' favorites to finish on the podium, Australia, take on Germany.
Australia come into the Tokyo Olympics looking relaxed after a successful warm-up camp in Las Vegas. The 'Boomers' secured a dramatic 3-point win over Argentina with San Antonio Spurs veteran Patty Mills hitting the game-winning shot. Mills then combined with Joe Ingles to help secure a shocking victory over Team USA. Although most of their experienced stars were rested for their final exhibition contest against Nigeria, Australia were still able to come away with a wipeout 108-69 win.
This all means that when they face Germany, ranked 17th in the World according to FIBA, they will expect to win. Germany qualified for the Tokyo Olympics by overcoming Croatia and then beating Brazil in the Final, both of whom are ranked above them. They did this without star guard Dennis Schroder, who will also miss the Games in Japan.
Instead, they were led by Orlando Magic forward Moritz Wagner, who put up 28 points against Brazil and also have Washington Wizards guard Isaac Bonga on their roster. Although Australia should come away from this contest with the win, it will not be as straightforward as expected, particularly if Germany have something to play for after their opening two contests at the Tokyo Olympics.