Team USA men’s hoops faces its toughest test yet

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

GAME TIME: Team USA and Spain will meet in what should be an entertaining, competitive semifinal on Friday (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN). Why are they meeting early? Spain lost its first two games of group play. They’ve been on fire since, and smoked France in the quarters. Look for Kevin Durant to go alpha dog -- he doesn’t want to take any sort of on-court L while he’s still a national villain for joining the Warriors. Nikola Mirotic (a naturalized Spaniard) is trolling teammate Jimmy Butler on Twitter.

The other semifinal should be a hoot, too: Australia meets Serbia at 6 p.m. ET. The winners meet Sunday for gold. The losers will battle for bronze.

The Americans finally found a strong two-way lineup.

I wrote about how entirely disrespectful Kevin Durant’s double-crossover-to-Eurostep against Argentina was considering he was facing Manu Ginobili in what would be the dude’s final ever international game. Real nice, Kevin. Real nice.

On the other hand, KD is out there talking about the added importance of representing the country given the turmoil within the United States.

YEP: Our buddy Alvin Chang at Vox.com offers up a few charts explaining why Team USA is struggling: the players aren’t as good as usual.

MEANWHILE ... The United States women handled business in their semifinal match with France, and will face Spain for gold on Saturday.

THE LINCHPIN: Fascinating piece by the really brilliant Ben Thompson on how sports are the linchpin holding “the entire post-war economic order together.”

WOO: Tim Connelley, Nuggets GM, joins the guys from Denver Stiffs to talk about the Nugget’s eventful summer, including the Dwyane Wade chase.

HOMEGROWN: Nice piece in SLAM about Isaiah Whitehead’s quest to represent Brooklyn to the fullest as a Net. Via REDEF.

A JET-KIDD REUNION? The Bucks are in advanced talks to add Jason Terry. When we last heard from JET, he was looking at getting into coaching. Maybe his old friend Jason Kidd will add him to the staff after a season?

BIG HURT: Ricky Rubio discusses the loss of his mother and how grief derailed his NBA season and almost kept him out of the Olympics.

Happy Friday. See you next time.