BEIJING — The U.S. women's team is going for a fifth consective gold medal. The path will go through Korea in Tuesday's quarterfinals. Australia and the U.S., considered the favorites in Beijing, would only meet in the medal round.
Here's the women's quarterfinals schedule (All times ET):
2:30 a.m. — China vs. Belarus
4:45 a.m. — Australia vs. Czech Republic
8 a.m. — USA vs. Korea
10:15 a.m. — Russia vs. Spain
BEIJING — The U.S. men will face Australia in the quarterfinals of the men's basketball competition at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday. Gametimes have not been set but the U.S. will likely play at 8 or 10:15 a.m. East coast time.
FYI - The U.S. could play defending gold medalist Argentina in the semifinals on Friday. The U.S. and Spain wouldn't meet again until the medal round on Sunday.
Here's are the matchups:
U.S. (Pool B No. 1) vs. Australia (Pool A No. 4)
Argentina (Pool A No. 2) vs. Greece (Pool B No. 3)
Winners of the first two games meet in the semifinals.
Spain (Pool B No. 2) vs. Croatia (Pool A. No. 3)
Lithuania (Pool A No. 1) vs. China (Pool B No. 4)
Winners of the second two games meet in the semifinals.
BEIJING — Los Angeles Lakers teammates Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol are battling for the same medal — gold — for their respective counties, the U.S. and Spain, at the Beijing Olympics.
But NBA business is never far from their minds. The Lakers drafted Gasol's younger brother Marc, in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft then traded his rights to the Memphis Grizzlies this past season in a trade that sent Pau Gasol to Los Angeles.
Marc, 23, is a 7-foot center who's also playing well for the Spanish national team. Listen to Bryant talk about what the younger Gasol, who has played for Winterthur FC Barcelona nad Akasgayu Girona in the Spanish professional league the past four seasons, will add to the Grizzlies.
BEIJING — Jason Kidd might not ever live this down with his superstar teammates on the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team.
James committed the minor sin of taking a layup on a breakaway feed from LeBron James instead of dunking in the second half of an impressive U.S. win over Spain on Saturday.
He's already the oldest man on the team at 35 and takes plenty of stuff about that. Here's first James, then Kidd, talking about the play.
BEIJING — That killed the buzz.
The U.S. destroyed any illusions Spain might have had about being a close second favorite in the men's basketball competition at the Beijing Olympics with a 119-82 Pool B victory over the defending World Champions at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium on Saturday.
USA forward LeBron James scored nine of the Americans' first 16 points, while the U.S. forced Spain into boo-boo after boo-boo and beat Spain to the other end to score.
BEIJING — The U.S. is playing Spain in the hottest game of pool play at the Beijing Olympics, which is being touted, yes, by me and the rest of humanity, as a possible gold-medal game preview. The U.S. is favored to win the gold. Spain is the defending world champion.
Since they last played each other at the 2004 Athens Games, we finally get to see how they stack up. Here are some numbers to chew on before the 10:15 a.m. ET start:
minus 0.4 — The U.S. is getting outrebounded by an average of 0.4 boards per game (37.3 to 37.7).
0 — Number of times Spain has beaten the U.S. in eight tries in Olympic action.
1 — Number of times the U.S. and Spain have met in the Olympic gold-medal game. The U.S. beat Spain in 1984. The silver for Spain in Los Angeles was its highest-ever Olympic finish.
10 — Spain has outworked its opponents by an average of 10 rebounds per game (41.0 to 31.0).
17.7 — Points per game average for Pau Gasol, who leads the Spaniards in scoring.
18.3 — Points per game average for Dwayne Wade, who leads the U.S. in scoring.
19.3 — Number of assists, on an average of 37 made baskets, the U.S. records per game.
Unknown — Number of Chinese who dig on U.S. guard Kobe Bryant.
BEIJING — USA guard Kobe Bryant sent messages in two languages to the nation of Spain in advance of tonight's USA-Spain basketball game at the Beijing Olympics.
Bryant will be facing a team led by his L.A. Lakers teammate Pau Gasol, Spain's leading scorer at 17.7 points per game.
(Sorry, meant to translate. Bryant said, "Good luck. We'll see tomorrow.")
BEIJING — By the time Saturday's mano-a-mano batalla grande between the USA and Spain at the Beijing Olympics begins at 10:15 a.m. on the East coast, you should be salivating for a long look at Spanish guard Ricky Rubio.
Even USA coach Mike Krzyzewski had to get in on the appetite whetting in advance of the game.
"I hear he wanted to go to Duke," Krzyzewski said on Friday at the U.S. practice session at Beijing Normal University.
BEIJING — USA forward Chris Bosh ran out and blocked Greek guard Vasileios Spanoulis at the 3-point line as the buzzer sounded to end the first half of the USA-Greece men's basketball game on Thursday.
That was about the size of it for Greece at the Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium.
The Americans were too quick, too athletic, too determined to avenge a 2006 loss in the World Championships to let the Greeks get away with much in a 92-69 victory at the Beijing Olympics.
AP photo
The U.S. men’s basketball team, coached by Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, must figure out how to defend the pick and roll, a basketball basic the Greeks used effectively to keep the Americans out of the gold medal game in the 2006 World Championships.
That’s the only loss for the U.S. since the team began asking for a three-year national team commitment from players.
When the teams meet in pool play Thursday (8 a.m. EDT, live on the USA Network), point guards Chris Paul, Deron Williams and Jason Kidd will be the key to defending the play — and producing a different outcome.
But it won’t be easy with the more-stringent officiating in the international game.
“It’s different,” Williams said. “You reach out and grab somebody, it’s going to be an intentional foul.
“It’ll be a tough test. Things didn’t play out well against them in the world championships. They’ll be a difficult team.”
— Mike Persinger
