The Olympics are finally starting for the U.S. women’s national basketball team when they take on Senegal at 11 a.m. ET Sunday.
Olympic basketball schedule 2016: The U.S. women’s team starts its road to the gold medal on Sunday
The U.S. women’s team will face Senegal in its first matchup of the tournament on a Sunday that features six other games.
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Geno Auriemma is leading a team that has won the last five Olympic golds and is carrying a supremely talented roster led by WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne, as well as several other superstars. They are expected to dominate the outmatched Senegal, which has only qualified to the Olympics once before Rio, finishing last in 2000. The U.S. should cruise to victory while finding minutes for everyone on the roster, including 21-year-old Breanna Stewart in her Olympics debut.
Australia and France, which are not in the same group as the U.S., should win their games as well. An upset in either game is not out of the question -- Turkey and Belarus are far from pushovers -- but they are going against powerhouses with medal aspirations.
The most intriguing game of the day should come when Spain faces Serbia, a clash between the two latest Eurobasket champions. Those two teams could be the biggest threats to the U.S. at the group level, so it will be interesting to see which one prevails.
Sunday’s action likely won’t tell us much about the women’s team that we don’t already know, but it will provide a glimpse into which opponents could be a threat.
On the men's side, the host Brazil will take on Lithuania. The battle between Jonas Valanciunas and Nene should be a good one and both teams have several NBA players like Marcelo Huertas, Leandro Barbosa and Domantas Sabonis. It should be a close game which could have an effect on the seeding that will determine who faces Team USA in the quarterfinals.
Pau Gasol's Spain, the silver medalist in the last two games, will battle the upstart Croatia, which has recent lottery picks Dario Saric and Mario Hezonja on its roster. Spain is missing Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, but is still one of the best teams in the world. They should emerge victorious but there are no easy games in the Olympics, especially not against younger and hungry teams.
The same applies to Argentina, which will take on a Nigerian squad missing Al-Farouq Aminu, but with a solid core that has allowed them to qualify to the two past Olympics. Manu Ginobili and Luis Scola surely want to take their squad as far as possible in which will likely be their last major tournament, but they will have to avoid getting overconfident to do so.
Sunday’s schedule (All times Eastern)
Women’s basketball
USA vs. Senegal, 11 a.m. (NBCSN, NBCOlympics.com)
Serbia vs. Spain, 1:15 p.m. (The Basketball Channel, NBCOlympics.com)
Australia vs. Turkey, 4:30 p.m. (The Basketball Channel, NBCOlympics.com)
France vs. Belarus, 6:45 p.m. (NBCOlympics.com)
Men’s basketball
Brazil vs. Lithuania, 1:15 p.m. (NBCSN, NBCOlympics.com)
Croatia vs. Spain, 6 p.m. (NBCSN, NBCOlympics.com)
Nigeria vs. Argentina, 9:30 p.m. (The Basketball Channel, NBCOlympics.com)
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