Olympic basketball 2016: Australia upsets France, Team USA rolls over China

The biggest international basketball competition did not disappoint,, and neither did Team USA as it once again worked through the world’s best teams and won the gold medal, like it has in the past two Olympics. There were 11 other national teams hoping to pull off a historic upset, but even with Team USA’s shaky defense in group play, it managed to find ways to win in each and every game. Scroll down for the latest scores and results.

There have been surprises in the past at the Olympic level. Now that the U.S. got by Argentina and Spain, Coach K’s team is on to the gold medal game. On the other side of the bracket, Serbia blitzed Australia to set up the gold medal meeting with the Americans.

Brazilian basketball has never had a golden generation. The country won a pair of FIBA World Cups (then known as World Championships) in 1959 and 1963, but its best Olympic showing is bronze over 50 years ago. For a country with a deep, rich history of passion for basketball — another sport that, like the beloved soccer, looks graceful in its purest form — Brazil is still searching for the group that’ll make history.

For a time, it looked like Brazil had potentially found those players. During the late 2000s, the country saw the rise of a team full of NBA-caliber players that was capable of rivaling just about anybody this side of Team USA. Leandro Barbosa, Nenê, Tiago Splitter, Anderson Varejão, Marcelinho Machado, Alex Garcia and Marcelinho Huertas helped put Brazil basketball back on the map. They did it while playing a fun, exciting style fitting of a nation known for its flare.

Poor China. Its basketball team lost twice to Team USA by 49 and 50 points in warmup matches and nearly got posterized by a DeMar DeRozan 360 dunk for its troubles. Guess who China had to play in its first game of the 2016 Olympic basketball tournament? Team USA, of course.

The result was a slaughter even more gruesome than the two exhibitions. The final score was 119-62, and it included what amounted to 35 minutes of garbage time after Team USA was a tad shaky in the first five minutes.

The United States deflected China’s first pass of the two teams’ Olympics 2016 opener, something that would be a theme for them on the night. China stayed competitive for about two minutes at least, jumping out to a 4-2 lead.

And ... that was as good as it got for China. The U.S. promptly ripped off a 9-0 run and never looked back, winning the first quarter, 30-10. Using the same combination of stifling defense and devastating transition play, they dominated the rest of the game to start group play with a 119-62 victory.

After that we’ll get to watch the latest version of Team USA make its Olympics debut. The Americans will face China, a team it beat by a total of 99 points in two exhibition games.

The evening will end with Serbia taking on Venezuela. Below is the full schedule.

The United States men’s national basketball team will open Olympic play Saturday evening against China. The two countries faced off twice in exhibition games, with Team USA winning both by a combined total of 99 points.

The game will be televised at 6 p.m. on NBC Sports Network and streamed live online here.