Team USA men's basketball schedule for 2024 Paris Olympics

Gonzaga coach Mark Few and Team USA face Nikola Jokic and Serbia to start Olympic competition

Photo by Erik Smith, Myk Crawford

Mark Few was an assistant coach under Dan Monson at Gonzaga when the 1992 Dream Team took the world by storm as the first — and greatest — group of NBA players ever assembled for the Olympic Games. 

Led by 10 of the NBA’s best 50 players of all time, Team USA crushed its opponents by an average of 44 points en route to the first of three straight gold medals in 1996 and 2000. The Americans went a perfect 24-0 in Olympic competition over that eight-year span and were rarely challenged by the rest of the world. Despite the game’s growing popularity, the U.S. has remained head and shoulders above its competition for the last three decades.

But Team USA’s journey to a fifth consecutive gold medal — which Few will be part of as an assistant coach to Steve Kerr — won’t come as easily. The international game has caught up to the U.S. in many ways, evidenced by the list of top players in the NBA currently. Four of the five players on the 2023-24 All-NBA First Team were not from the U.S., while the past six MVP trophies have gone to foreigners — Nikola Jokic (three), Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo (two). 

"I mean, listen, [the players] get it. They're highly competitive, and they have a lot of pride," Few said of Team USA during training camp in Las Vegas. "If we can just be aggressive, but be ourselves and be who we are, and especially at the defensive end, we should be in great shape."

The U.S. has felt the pressure from the rest of the world throughout its exhibition tour in Abu Dhabi and London. After handling a talented Canadian squad on home soil, the Americans narrowly escaped with a win over Australia, which nearly overcame a 15-point deficit to pull within four points in the final seconds thanks to a 20-point effort by Saint Mary’s standout Jock Landale. Everything clicked in a 26-point drubbing of Jokic and Serbia, but close calls against South Sudan and Germany indicate the road to gold is much more difficult than sportsbooks would rather say. 

It’s also worth noting Kevin Durant missed all five exhibition games due to a strained left calf he suffered during training camp. In his absence, Kerr has developed his rotation — Devin Booker and Jrue Holiday on the wing with Jayson Tatum and Anthony Edwards off the bench. Inserting Durant into the lineup would likely mean one of those players would move further down the depth chart.

Edwards has been electrifying off the bench at 13 points per game in exhibition play. Holiday has done a little bit of everything on both ends of the floor. LeBron James leads the team in scoring at 14.6 points per game and has come up clutch on more than one occasion; Steph Curry is the team’s best outside shooter at 38% from beyond the arc.

However Kerr reconfigures the rotation, it’s still a heavily favored Team USA squad that is much improved on the boards than last summer’s FIBA World Cup roster. Not many countries have an answer for Anthony Davis and Bam Adebayo on the interior. If the intensity is there defensively throughout, the U.S. should overwhelm its opponents with its size and athleticism alone.

Here’s a look at Team USA’s Olympic schedule and its competition in Group C (all times in Pacific Standard Time).

8:15 a.m., July 28 vs. Serbia (Pierre Mauroy Stadium)

Noon, July 31 vs. South Sudan (Pierre Mauroy Stadium)

8:15 a.m., Aug. 3 vs. Puerto Rico (Pierre Mauroy Stadium)

SERBIA

Another matchup with Serbia pits Few against his former Gonzaga pupil Filip Petrusev. The 6-foot-11 post had 11 points and three steals in the exhibition matchup, though the Americans neutralized Jokic and made 16 3-pointers to run away with a 105-79 victory. Curry had six triples to lead all scorers with 24 points.

Still, the Serbs figure to give Team USA its stiffest competition in Group C play. They’re coming off a silver medal finish at the World Cup last summer in which they beat Canada in the semifinals and lost by six to Germany in the final, all without their best player in Jokic. The roster isn’t riddled with NBA talent, though Bogdan Bogdanovic and Vasilije Micic are solid counterparts to Jokic as outside shooters.

Serbia will also get a boost from Nikola Jovic, who’s set to join the team after injuring his ankle in an offseason workout in Miami. The 6-foot-10 forward did not play in most of Serbia’s exhibition tour, which included double-digit victories over France and most recently Greece.

Petrusev had 15 points and eight rebounds in the 94-72 win over the Greeks. He’ll figure to play a key role in Paris after starting in all five exhibition games and averaging 13.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in those contests. 

SOUTH SUDAN

Not many expected South Sudan to give the U.S. its most trouble on its exhibition tour, but that was the case after the Americans had to overcome a 14-point halftime deficit to a team ranked outside the top 30 on FIBA’s World Rankings scale. If not for a clutch layup from James in the final seconds, the world would’ve witnessed a historic upset before Olympic competition officially began.

It remains to be seen if another tightly-contested showdown awaits on July 31, though it's likely Team USA doesn’t come out as unprepared as it did the first time. Carlik Jones was everywhere for South Sudan in that matchup, as he finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in 32 minutes of action. The U.S. can’t lose track of 6-foot-6 wing Marial Shayok after he had 24 points and six 3-pointers. 

With a win over Puerto Rico, South Sudan would become the first African team to reach the knockout stage of the Olympics.

PUERTO RICO

Jose Alvarado guided Puerto Rico to its first Olympics since 2004, when it became the first team to beat Team USA with NBA players on the roster, after the New Orleans Pelicans guard put on a show in a win over Lithuania in the qualifying tournament final. Alvarado and NBA veteran Tremont Waters headline a guard-heavy roster that gave Canada a scare in its most recent exhibition matchup.

Whether Alvarado and co. can stand up to the U.S. is another question entirely.