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The USA men’s national basketball team may be peaking at the right time.
After some concern about how it would fare at the FIBA World Cup, Team USA won its fourth consecutive game to open the tournament when it defeated Greece 69-53 on Saturday. It can now clinch a berth in the quarterfinals with a win over Brazil on Monday.
Brazil won its first three games before its surprising 93-71 loss to the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Here’s everything you need to know heading into Monday’s USA-Brazil game.
Game Information
Date: Monday, Sept. 9
Time: 8:30 a.m. ET
Live Stream: ESPN+
Odds (per OddsChecker): USA -17.5
Preview
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Team USA will advance to the quarterfinals with either a win over Brazil, a Greece win over the Czech Republic or through a potential three-way tiebreaker. But with the way the Americans are playing of late, it appears likely it can take care of business on its own.
In its first three games, USA had strong offensive showings, scoring at least 88 points in each of those victories. But its most recent victory over Greece was a defensive battle, and the Americans still pulled out a win. Team USA held Greece to 53 points, including only 15 from reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“That’s where we’ve got to hang our hat,” forward Jaylen Brown said, according to Team USA’s official site. “We are young. We are athletic. We’ve got a lot of bodies, a lot of talent. We are built for the duration of this tournament. So, as teams start to slow down, we are looking to speed up.”
Over its last two games, Team USA has held Japan and Greece to a combined 98 points. That’s the fewest points that USA has allowed in back-to-back games of a major international tournament since the 1988 Olympics, according to the Associated Press (h/t ESPN.com).
But that doesn’t mean Team USA can’t score, too. Kemba Walker led the team with 15 points in the win over Greece, while Donovan Mitchell netted 10 and Harrison Barnes and Derrick White each scored nine.
“We played a very experienced team, really well coached, and one that was really physical and executes really well,” Team USA coach Gregg Popovich said, per Team USA’s site. “So, it was a good test for us, and it helped us get better. And that’s our goal, to try to get better in every one of these games.”
However, the competition will get much tougher if Team USA advances to the quarterfinals.
Six teams have already reached that stage—France, Australia, Serbia, Spain, Poland and Argentina. Although all of those are strong, it could be interesting to see USA take on Australia, which it lost to in an exhibition game on Aug. 24.
At that point, there were reasons to think that Team USA may not be as strong as past years and that a third FIBA World Cup championship may not be on the horizon. But things are looking up now, and a win over Brazil would put USA another step closer.
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