The matchup pits a collection of talented Americans against a French team that has honed its game by playing together over time.
The men’s basketball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics comes to a close on Saturday with a gold medal game between the United States and France in the morning (Friday night in the United States) and a third-place matchup between Australia and Slovenia later in the day. The Americans, who have won three straight gold medals in the event dating back to 2008, dropped their tournament opener to France, raising questions about the team’s preparedness for these Games. It did not help they had multiple shaky showings, including two losses, in a run of warm-up games before traveling to Tokyo. But they have improved in every game since. The question is whether they have improved enough, in this short amount of time, to secure the championship. The gold medal game will be on NBC on Friday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. The bronze medal game will be on the USA Network at 7 a.m. Saturday. Despite their loss in the opener, the Americans are still favored to win their 16th gold medal in men’s basketball. A big part of their recent surge in confidence has been the play of Kevin Durant, who became the country’s career leading scorer in Olympic play during the tournament and has looked dominant in the team’s last two games.
