Spain vs. Australia 2016, Olympic basketball: Time, TV schedule and team news for bronze medal game

Spain and Australia will tip off in the bronze medal game for men’s basketball on Sunday morning in Rio. The final day of competition at the 2016 Olympics, Spain is trying to win its third straight Olympic medal, while the Australian team is looking to bring home some hardware for the first time in history.

Both teams took very different paths to get to the bronze medal game. Spain started off its trip to Rio with a pair of close losses to Croatia and Brazil. The team was struggling offensively, and its aging backcourt of Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Rodriguez and Juan Carlos Navarro seemed to be having trouble getting going.

Then the Spain we had always expected finally showed up. The team blew out Lithuania by 50 points and Argentina by 19 points to close out the group stage, then had no trouble getting past longtime rival France with a 25-point win in the quarterfinals. Suddenly Spain was back, and it gave Team USA a real challenge in an 82-76 semifinal loss. This has been a tournament of ups and downs for Spain, but it’ll be looking to finish things off with a medal Sunday.

For Australia, things started out great before a disastrous semifinal performance ended their dreams of upsetting the Americans and winning gold. After an incredible run through the group stage that saw the team finish 4-1 with only a close loss to the U.S., the Boomers seemed like a team to watch. When they pounded a solid Lithuania team by 26 points in the quarterfinals, it only boosted confidence.

And then came the semifinal against Serbia, when the Aussies simply didn’t show up. It’s hard to explain what happened to Australia on Friday. The team scored just five points in the first quarter and 14 points by halftime, when it was already trailing by 21 points. The offense performed better in the second half, but the team didn’t get any closer and ultimately lost 87-61.

In the entire first half, Australia made just two shots away from the paint:

If Australia wants any chance of beating a talented, experienced Spain team, it’ll need to shoot much better than it did against Serbia. The Boomers finished 22-of-66 from the field and 4-of-31 from three against Serbia, which is an almost impossible way to win.

NBC Sports will have coverage of the Spain vs. Australia bronze medal match live, so here’s how to watch the penultimate Olympic basketball game in Rio.

All times Eastern

Time: 10:30 a.m.

TV: NBCSN

Online Stream: NBC Sports