Men's Olympic basketball tournament quarterfinals set
RIO DE JANEIRO — The unpredictable men’s Olympic basketball competition needed the final day of group play to decide not only Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchups but also which teams from Group B would advance to the knockout round.
The day started with all six Group B teams — Croatia, Spain, Lithuania, Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria — alive for a spot in the quarterfinals. Of those, just Lithuania and Argentina were guaranteed to advance.
Because Spain beat Argentina and Croatia beat Lithuania — Brazil’s win over Nigeria ended up being meaningless — Croatia, Spain, Lithuania and Argentina in that order are the top four seeds from Group B, setting up these quarterfinal games (all times Eastern):
- USA-Argentina, 5:45 p.m.
- Spain-France, 1:30 p.m.
- Croatia-Serbia, 9:15 p.m.
- Australia-Lithuania, 10 a.m.
The winners of USA-Argentina and Spain-France will play in one semifinal on Friday, and the winners of Serbia-Croatia and Australia-Lithuania will play in the other on Friday.