The United States men’s basketball team will open the quarterfinals on Tuesday (Aug. 6) against Brazil at 12:30 p.m. MST.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Eight of the 12 teams advanced out of group play to the quarterfinals. The two best teams from each group and two wild cards (based on point differential) moved on to the quarterfinals, in which the matchups were determined by a random draw with two caveats (via nbcolympics.com).
- The two highest-ranked teams will be placed in the same pot and therefore end up on opposite sides of the bracket.
- Teams from the same group can’t be drawn against each other in the quarterfinals.
The U.S. is the No. 1 seed heading into the quarterfinals after finishing Group C with a 3-0 record and a plus-64 point differential. Serbia (2-1, +26 point differential) also advanced out of Team USA’s group, while South Sudan (1-2, -17 point differential) and Puerto Rico (0-3) were eliminated.
Brazil (1-2, -7 point differential) narrowly got out of Group B, which featured Germany (3-0, +47 point differential), France (2-1, +2 point differential) and Japan (0-3). Germany and France also advanced.
The Brazilians are led by 6-foot-9 Bruno Caboclo, who had 33 points on 13-of-19 shooting, 17 rebounds and a block in 30 minutes in Brazil’s lone win over Japan Friday.
“We’ve seen almost everybody, but we haven’t seen Brazil, and that’s our focus,” Team USA coach Steve Kerr said after Saturday’s win over Puerto Rico. “I believe that’s the matchup, I don’t know if it’s official yet, but we’ve gotta be ready, they made 18 threes (Friday), and they are the best offensive rebounding team in the tournament, so we have to be ready.”
Three teams also advanced from Group A: Canada (3-0, +20 point differential), Australia (1-2, -4 point differential) and Greece (1-2, -8 point differential). Spain (1-2, -8 point differential) was eliminated.
By virtue of who could play each other given that teams in their respective groups can’t open the quarterfinals against one another, it was pretty much known the U.S. would face Brazil, hence Kerr’s quote.
This is how the rest of the quarterfinals schedule looks on Aug. 6:
- Greece vs. Germany at 2:00 a.m. MST
- Australia vs. Serbia at 5:30 a.m. MST
- France vs. Canada at 9:00 a.m. MST
If the U.S. wins, they would play the winner of Australia vs. Serbia in the semifinals on Aug. 8.
ROAD TO GOLD ????
Men’s #Basketball Quarter-Finals are here ????#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/rCdpqMzulb
— FIBA (@FIBA) August 3, 2024
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
