USA vs. Spain 2016 live stream: How to watch Olympic basketball online

After an easy victory over Argentina in the quarterfinals, Team USA will face its toughest challenge yet in the Olympics. They will have to beat Spain in order to advance to the gold medal game and face the winner of Serbia and Australia.

Everyone expected Spain and the U.S. to meet in the final game but early struggles by the European powerhouse made that impossible. Spain lost against Serbia and Brazil early in the tournament, causing skepticism about their level in this competition. They silenced the doubters with comfortable wins against Lithuania and Argentina to close their participation in the group stage and then trounced France in the quarterfinals, showing that they are still a force to be reckoned with and likely the second-best team in the tournament.

Team USA is still undefeated but just like Spain, they too left some doubts about their dominance in the group stage. Close wins over France, Australia and Serbia showed that they were still the class of the tournament but far from unbeatable. The defense was permeable and the offense could devolve into one-on-one play that resulted in untimely droughts. The convincing win over Argentina in the quarterfinals has quieted some of those concerns but an experienced and talented opponent like Spain could take advantage of those weaknesses.

This is the third consecutive time these two teams will face each other in the Olympics and it should be Team USA’s third win. Even with inconsistent effort on the defensive end and players who look out of place in their first international appearance, Mike Krzyzewski’s team has more talent and depth. If Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony lead the way on offense and the second unit comes in with energy on defense, the U.S. could take control of the game and create separation.

Spain is going to rely on Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic for offense and on their team defense to try to overcome a significant size disadvantage on the wing. It might work for a while but unless Team USA has a bad day, it likely won’t be enough to pull off the upset.

Time: 2:30 p.m. ET

TV: NBCSN

Streaming: NBC Sports