The unpredictable men?s Olympic basketball tournament quarterfinal cast was decided only on the final day of the group competitions.
Group A finished in a well ordered manner, but Group B plays resulted in a four-way tie that eventually went to Croatia via tiebreakers. Host nation Brazil had a 2-3 slate and did not qualify for the knockout round.
The last day of the preliiminaries began with all six Group B teams Croatia, Spain, Lithuania, Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria with their hopes alive for a slot in the quarterfinals. Only Lithuania and Argentina were guaranteed to advance outright.
Spain beat Argentina and Croatia defeated Lithuania, making Brazil?s win over Nigeria became non-bearing. So the final Group B standings are Croatia, Spain, Lithuania and Argentina in that order are the top four seeds from that group.
Group A?s top seed, the undefeated United States, will play with Argentina in the first game of the quarterfinals, while second-seeded Australia will face Lithuania. Croatia will engage in a matchup with Serbia, while Spain will take on France in the exciting matchups of the quarterfinals. Venezuela, China, Brazil and Nigeria have been eliminated. All four quarterfinal games will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 17 (Brazilian time).
The winners of USA-Argentina and Spain-France will play in one semifinal on Friday Aug. 19, and the winners of Serbia-Croatia and Australia-Lithuania will play also on Friday. The bronze and gold medal games are set for Sunday, Aug. 21.
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