Henry Liao

Following a hard-earned 99-94 win over fourth-placer Lithuania last August 4, Team USA (4-0) will seek to complete a sweep of its five-game preliminary-round assignments in Group A against Argentina (3-1) on August 7 (Manila time, 5:15 a.m.). *France (3-1), whose lone defeat came at the hands of the Americans, 98-71, on opening day, will play Nigeria (1-3) and Lithuania (1-3) will take on winless Tunisia (0-4).

In Group B, Russia (4-0) upset 2008 Beijing Olympics silver medalist Spain, 77-74, and is assured of first place in its group. *On the final day of the preliminary phase on August 6-7, Russia tangles with Australia (2-2); Spain (3-1) clashes with Brazil (3-1); and host Great Britain (0-4) faces China (0-4) in a battle of winless teams.

The Spain vs. Brazil encounter should be very interesting.

Neither team wants to face the United States before the semifinals or medal round.

The winner of the Spain vs. Brazil first-round match will have to play gold medal favorite United States in the semifinals. *The loser ironically will dodge a bullet and avoid meeting the defending men’s basketball medalists until the gold-medal game.

That is assuming both Spain and Brazil survive the crucial one-game knockout quarterfinal round.

Will brothers Pau and Marc Gasol and the Spaniards “tank” it? *We”ll find out when their game against the Brazilians takes place on August 7 (Manila time, 3:00 a.m.)

Note that there are more classification-round games for 9th to 12 places and 5th to 8th places in Olympic men’s basketball. *The basis for the final rankings of the eliminated teams is their overall win-loss records.