(Getty)
It’s only the semifinals, but Friday’s matchup between the USA men’s basketball team and Spain is going to feel an awful lot like the gold-medal game. Maybe because that’s been the case the last two Olympics.
Both squads are coming off dominant performances in the quarterfinals. The Red, White and Blue made easy work of Argentina despite a slow start, while Spain rolled past a France squad full of NBA talent, 92-67.
While Spain has a lot of offensive weapons–Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic, Ricky Rubio, Sergio Llull–their defense makes them especially dangerous, as NBA.com’s John Schuhmann noted:
Spain is really good, especially defensively. Unless we see real improvement from USA, I’m thinking it’s Spain vs. Australia in the final.
“(Spain) is still the team that USA Basketball staffers privately fear the most,” wrote ESPN’s Marc Stein.
Of course, that said, the United States is still on another level talent-wise than everyone else in the world. Even though Spain presents some interesting matchup problems, the Americans will enter this rematch of both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics gold-medal games as big-time favorites.
Here’s all the viewing and betting information you need to know:
Olympics Men’s Basketball Semifinal: USA vs. Spain
Date: Friday, August 19, 2016
Start Time: 2:30 p.m. ET
TV Channel, USA: NBC Sports Network
Live Stream, USA: NBCOlympics.com or Sling TV
TV Channel, Canada: CBC or TSN
Live Stream, Canada: Olympics.CBC.ca
TV Channel, UK: BBC
Live Stream, UK: BBC.com
TV Channel Elsewhere: You can click here for television rights in different countries around the world
Line: USA (-15.5), per OddsShark
Over/Under: 187.5