Saturday’s gold and bronze medal matchups at the Paris Olympics may look awfully familiar to fans of international basketball.
In the battle for gold, the United States and France will meet in a rematch of the 2020 Olympic final, when Team USA beat the French team by a score of 87-82 in Tokyo.
The U.S. squad is currently a 16-point favorite in Saturday’s rematch, according to BetOnline.ag. That’s no real surprise. Team USA, with a more loaded roster than the one it took to Tokyo, dominated the group stage with a 3-0 record and a +64 point differential, while France had just a +2 point differential and needed an overtime victory over Japan to secure a 2-1 record.
But France has the home crowd on its side and has pulled off an impressive pair of upsets in the knockout round, defeating Canada and Germany in consecutive contests to get back to the gold medal game. The U.S., meanwhile, looked beatable for the first time this tournament in its semifinal vs. Serbia and needed to erase a 17-point deficit to advance to the final.
Team USA has won men’s basketball gold in every Olympics since 2004 and it would be a major surprise if it didn’t happen again, but if the French team – led by rising star Victor Wembanyama – plays like it did against Canada and Germany, it should at least be a competitive game.
As for the bronze medal matchup, it’s another rematch of a recent international showdown — Germany defeated Serbia at the 2023 FIBA World Cup last September for gold. On Saturday, the two nations will square off in the hopes of earning an Olympic medal. It would be the first Olympic men’s basketball medal for Germany or the second for Serbia, which won silver in Rio in 2016.
While Germany took last year’s gold medal game, the Serbians didn’t have star center Nikola Jokic on their World Cup roster. Having the three-time NBA MVP available for this game makes Serbia the favorite, but oddsmakers are expecting a close one — BetOnline.ag has the Germans listed as just two-point underdogs.
While Jokic has led the way for Serbia with 18.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 8.2 assists per game, Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic has been a reliable sidekick, matching Jokic’s scoring average (18.8 PPG) while also chipping in 4.4 RPG and 4.0 APG and making 42.9% of his three-point attempts. Vasilije Micic (12.2 PPG, 5.0 APG), Filip Petrusev (9.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG), and Aleksa Avramovic (10.0 PPG) are among the team’s other key contributors.
On the other side, the Germans have been led by Dennis Schröder (18.0 PPG, 7.8 APG) and Franz Wagner (18.6 PPG, 5.2 RPG), with Daniel Theis (9.0 PPG, 8.0 RPG), Isaac Bonga (9.8 PPG, 4.2 RPG), and Moritz Wagner (8.6 PPG, 3.6 RPG) also playing significant roles.
Prior to their semifinal loss to France, Germany looked like perhaps the second-best team in the tournament, with a 4-0 record and a +60 point differential. But Serbia has been awfully good too — they’ve lose twice to the U.S., but have gone 3-0 with a +57 point differential against everyone else.
We want to know what you think. Who will win the gold and bronze medal games in Paris on Saturday?
Vote in our poll below, then head to the comment section below to share your predictions!
I watched the women’s game France vs Belgium and France got a lot of questionable calls go their way. So don’t be surprised if the fouls favor France by a huge amount.
It’s been happening for the mens team, too. All it has done is create the most non competitive Gold medal game possible. Has me looking forward to Brisbane 2032 lol.
Once again, Steph should be the MVP but probably wont because he isnt the media’s favorite
He’s had one good game man. Was quite the game, nonetheless, just one game. I hate everything LBJ stands for but he’s been the most consistent playing high level the whole tournament. 2nd for USA KD. Jokic also being Jokic.
Only way Curry is the MVP if he has a great gold medal game and is the reason they take the gold but LeBron and KD at this point are the MVP with all around games.
MVP?? Of the Olympics??
I’m pretty sure whoever is calling the shots has taken France as far as they can, I’m feeling a little blowout. Much easier than the Serbia game.
What accuracy!