Rio 2016: Team USA vs Serbia preview and game thread

After a fairly close game against Australia on Wednesday, Team USA is back in action tonight. They’ll face a solid Serbian team that is still suffering from nightmares of Tony Parker:

Despite their 1-2 record in group play, the Serbians shouldn’t be underestimated. They outclassed Venezuela in their opener, then lost by 15 to Australia before giving France all they could handle on Wednesday. Their roster features Nikola Jokic, the 21-year-old Denver Nuggets center. In this competition, however, he’s playing as a power forward, which gives you an idea how much size this Serbian team sports.

Along with Jokic the Serbian team also has a couple former first round NBA draft picks in point guard Nemanja Nedovic (now out of the NBA) and shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic (draft rights currently held by the Sacramento Kings).

That said, their team isn’t as good as Australia, so this game will probably not be close. Unfortunately, that means Kyrie Irving probably won’t need to take over like he did on Wednesday.

Don’t worry Steph, it should be safe to watch this one.

When? 6:00 p.m.

Where? Carioca Arena 1, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Broadcast? NBCSN

Online? http://stream.nbcolympics.com/nbcsn-day-7 (requires cable subscription)