Is USA Women's 3x3 Basketball Team out of Paris Olympics? Closer look after 0-3 run

By Mathews Kannanthara

Modified Aug 01, 2024 13:16 GMT

With their recent 17-15 loss against Team Australia in the Women's 3x3 Basketball event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Team USA has started their campaign with a 0-3 run. However, they are not out of contention yet and must find their rhythm soon to bounce back in the tournament.

According to the Olympic 3x3 basketball event format, all eight participating teams will play once against each other in the pool stage. Based on their record in the pool stage, the top two teams will directly qualify for the semifinals, while the bottom two teams will be eliminated from contention.

Meanwhile, the teams placed third to sixth will compete in a play-in round, pitting the third-seed team against the sixth seed and the fourth-seed team against the fifth seed. The two winners of the play-in games will advance to the semifinals alongside the two top-seeded teams.

Despite being at the bottom of the pool stage table, Team USA may avoid finishing in the bottom two spots if they win the majority of their remaining four games.

Here are the women's 3x3 basketball pool round table standings after the USA's loss against Australia:

Team	Games Played	Won	Lost
Spain	2	2	0
Australia	4	3	1
Germany	3	2	1
Canada	3	2	1
China	3	1	2
France	3	1	2
Azerbaijan	3	1	2
United States	3	0	3

The USA women's roster for the 3x3 basketball event started their Olympic campaign with a loss against Germany and fell to Azerbaijan and Australia in the following games. They will face Spain next, the current top seed in the event, at 3:30 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Team USA Women's 3x3 Basketball Team must find chemistry

Though the USA Women's 3x3 basketball team boasts heavy talent as they look to repeat as gold-medal winners in the Olympic event with a completely different squad, their lack of team chemistry is becoming evident.

Hailey Van Lith and Cierra Burdick have lots of experience playing together in the 3x3 format; however, they are joined by Rhyne Howard and Dearica Hamby, who don't have as much experience. Moreover, they only had about two weeks of preparation together, which could be the reason for their 0-3 start to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“We’re the most inexperienced team here.” Burdick said after losing the opening game against Germany. “We got a lot of skill, a lot of talent, but that doesn’t win 3x3 games. That’s a prime time example right there.”

If the USA Women's 3x3 roster wants to secure back-to-back gold medals in the event, they must find chemistry in their playing, and fast. If they fail to do so, they will likely be eliminated without even making the play-in stage.