The wait is over, and the road to the gold medal has been paved for the eight nations that have qualified to the Olympic quarterfinals for basketball glory. As for Team USA, who are praised as the favourites to win, have drawn Brazil in this upcoming stage and will face the South Americans this Tuesday night in Paris.
The U.S. squad would potentially clash against Serbia or Australia in semifinals if they advance tomorrow evening, and the earliest they would match up against France, Canada or Germany would be in the Final scenario.
For now, the Americans continue 3-0 as the No. 1 overall seed after beating Puerto Rico 104 to 83, and in theory, they are facing Brazil as the easiest quarterfinals contest. “They’re all excellent teams, well-coached,” Steve Kerr said. “But Brazil is our focus.”
The quarterfinals matchups and brackets are set for Men’s basketball #Paris2024
Team USA 🇺🇸 will face Brazil 🇧🇷 in their quarterfinals matchup pic.twitter.com/51CdblGx9c
— The Outlet Forum (@TheOutletForum) August 3, 2024
However, the U.S. coach doesn’t underestimate their next opponents despite their underdog status. “They’re very physical. I think they’re the No. 1 offensive rebounding team in the tournament,” he said on Sunday. “They’ve got a lot of really good shooters, and they just play hard.”
“They compete play after play, so we’ll have to be ready for their physicality and their shooting, and we need to be on edge and ready for them because they’re not going to back down,” Kerr added when talking about their high-efficiency formula, as well as physical game.
LeBron James also guaranteed a difficult game ahead of them, especially considering that Team USA has given up more offensive rebounds than they have earned. “I’ve watched all the games,” the Lakers star shared. “They’re very dedicated to their offensive and defensive systems.”
At this point, there are no easy matches. “In the spirit of the Olympics and the marathon/sprint metaphor that I’ve used, now that we’ve been through it, I would call it the 800 meters,” Kerr expressed. “We’re running really hard, but it’s not the 100 meters.”
France vs. Canada is considered by many to be the most exciting matchup of this upcoming Olympic basketball quarterfinals
While all eight nations are getting ready to confront the knock-out stages, starting this Tuesday, many believe that France vs. Canada is the most exciting match. As the hosts lost to Germany last weekend, they picked up a more difficult draw against an unbeaten Canada team, who is expected to earn a medal in Paris.
“I think we’ve all got the good will, the good energy,” said star Victor Wembanyama. “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.”
His coach, on the other hand, believes that they can use this clash to their advantage. “Now, it’s even. We will be 0-0 on Tuesday,” Vincent Collet said this Sunday. “They have more to lose than us in this position.”
While Canada hasn’t earned Olympic silverware in basketball since winning silver in 1936, star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is convinced that they can defeat any team that is put in front of them. “We played a lot of really good teams, and we beat them all,” said the Thunder guard. “There are some things we can clean up for sure, but we’ll take it.”
