USA Men’s Basketball Going for Gold at Tokyo

Overtime Heroics Editorial

807 days ago

We are about two weeks away from the start of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Team USA Men’s Basketball was one of the 12 countries that qualified for the Olympic tournament this summer. The United States is looking to go for their 16th Men’s Basketball Gold Medal this summer. Team USA Basketball has won a medal in all of the Olympic Tournaments they have entered.

Team USA Roster and Potential Starting Lineup

Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Kevin Love are the only players on the 2021 roster that have made an Olympic Team previously in their career. Jayson Tatum and Khris Middleton both participated in the FIBA World Cup where the team finished in 7th Place. Here is a look at the full roster that includes a combined total of 37 NBA All-Star Game appearances.

Here is one of the many options that Team USA can use for their starting lineup:

PG: Damian Lillard
SG: Devin Booker
SF: Jayson Tatum
PF: Kevin Durant
C: Bam Adebayo

Team USA Coaching Staff

The Head Coach for Team USA at the Olympics will be San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, he has a 38-10 record with one Olympic Gold Medal as a coach for Team USA. His assistants include Lloyd Pierce, former Atlanta Hawks head coach and current Indiana Pacers assistant. Steve Kerr, current Golden State Warriors head coach. Jay Wright, current head coach for the Villanova Wildcats.

Team USA Olympic Schedule

The format for Men’s Basketball in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics starts with 3 Groups of 4 Countries. Each team plays the other three teams in the group during the Group Stages. After the group stage, the top two teams in each group and the top two third-place teams qualify for the Single Elimination Knockout Stage. Team USA finds themselves in a group with France, Iran, and the Czech Republic. Their first match is against the French on Sunday, July 25 at 8 am EDT. Team USA will face Iran at 12:40 am EDT on Wednesday, July 28. The final match of the group stage for Team USA is against the Czech Republic at 8 am EDT on Saturday, July 31. The Knockout Stage starts on Monday, August 2 with the Gold Medal game on Friday, August 6 at 10:30 pm EDT and the Bronze Medal game on Saturday, August 7.

Strongest Opponents

Although Team USA is the heavy favorite of the tournament (-750) there are a couple of other teams who might be able to put up a fight against the United States. One of those teams is Australia, which has the second-best odds to win at +1200. Australia’s roster consists includes NBA Players: Joe Ingles, Aron Baynes, Dante Exum, Matthew Dellavedova, and Josh Green. Spain has the third-highest odds to win Gold at +1700, the Spanish are led by Ricky Rubio and the two Gasol brothers. The strongest opponent in the same group as the United States is the French at +3100 odds to win gold. France is led by Celtics guard Evan Fournier and Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert.

Although the USA are heavy favorites, it will be fun for all the NBA fans from the United States to join together and support the country and all the very talented players during the Summer Olympics. To stay updated on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics make sure to follow Overtime Heroics on Twitter!

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