The Americans are three wins away from the gold medal in Paris
USA Basketball is off to a great start at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and on Saturday, it took another step toward a fifth straight gold medal with a 104-83 victory over Puerto Rico. With that win, Team USA improved to 3-0 after the group stage, boasted a point differential of +64 and secured the No. 1 seed. The first tiebreaker for knockout stage seeding is the head-to-head record, and the second is point differential.
Team USA claimed the top spot in the tournament, as two other undefeated teams — Germany (+47) and Canada (+20) — secured the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively. The final seeding for the quarterfinals was not determined until the last game in group play, Serbia vs. South Sudan, was decided on Saturday afternoon.
Eight teams will be in action for the knockout stage on Tuesday, Aug. 6 (All times U.S./Eastern):
• Germany vs. Greece, 5 a.m. (E Channel, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
• Serbia vs. Australia, 8:30 a.m. (USA, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
• Canada vs. France, noon (Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
• USA vs. Brazil, 3:30 p.m. (USA, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
Team USA will not face Germany, France or Canada until a possible gold medal matchup on Aug. 10, as they are on the other side of the bracket. The Americans will face Brazil in the quarterfinals, while Canada will meet France. The other two quarterfinals on Tuesday will be Germany vs. Greece and Serbia vs. Australia. The semifinals are slated for Thursday, Aug. 8.
Technically, Greece should be a lower seed than Brazil, as it had a worse point differential. However, Brazil cannot be the No. 7 seed because Germany is No. 2, and teams from the same group are not allowed to play in the quarterfinals. Greece, led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, only advanced because South Sudan lost to Serbia in the final group play match on Saturday.
Serbia, which got standout performances from Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nikola Jookic against South Sudan, won both of their group games after dropping its opener to Team USA. Group C was the only group that advanced just two teams.
The host nation of France, winners of silver in the past two Olympics, is led by veteran Rudy Gobert and first-timer Victor Wembanyama. Canada has the star guard duo of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray. Germany, paced by Dennis Schroder, is the reigning World Cup winner.
