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USA Basketball still on the path to gold in Rio
Diana Taurasi and coach Geno Auriemma have reunited to lead the USA women's basketball team in Rio. USA TODAY Sports

USA Basketball still on the path to gold in Rio

Through three games of play in Rio, both the men's and women's USA basketball teams have made it through the first three games of group play at the 2016 Olympics unscathed. However, the paths that they've taken to their respective 3-0 starts have been markedly different, and that's mainly due to the level of competition that each team has faced so far.

On the men's side of things, the star-studded squad that's being led by such NBA luminaries as Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony and Kyrie Irving made it through the first two games with relative ease. The U.S. opened the tournament with a 57-point dismantling of the Chinese squad and then followed that up with a 44-point drubbing of Venezuela. The only real problem that the Americans encountered in those first two games came in the first quarter of the Venezuela game, which is when the massive underdogs from South America managed to finish the first quarter tied at 18 with the USA. The Americans responded by starting the second quarter on a 24-4 run, and that was basically that as far as competitiveness was concerned.

However, Team USA got all it could handle and then some from an Australian team that was ready to take full advantage of the physical style that the FIBA rules allow for. If you run into a team that has the likes of Matthew Dellavedova, Andrew Bogut and Patty Mills playing for it, you know that you're likely going to be in for a physical game, and that's exactly what the U.S. got. The Australians have also been playing some high-quality basketball since the tournament began, which meant that this was going to be a challenge for the Americans from start to finish.

As a result, Team USA actually went into halftime trailing — which is the first time that's happened since the infamous 2004 tournament — and had to scrape and claw its way to a 10-point victory by the end of the game, with Carmelo Anthony doing most of the heavy lifting down the stretch.

Speaking of Anthony, he's normally excelled in Olympic play, and this year's tournament is no different for him. He's averaging 18 points, six rebounds and one assist so far in the competition, and recently became the all-time leading scorer for Team USA following his performance against Australia. Meanwhile, Kevin Durant has been contributing at a rate of 18 points, four rebounds and four assists so far, and players like Paul George, Kyrie Irving and DeMarcus Cousins have also been helping pace the U.S. to this 3-0 start. The usual suspects are showing up, and that should be a good sign as the U.S. gets into the depths of the tournament in Rio.

The Americans will now face a couple of decent challenges in the form of a Serbian team led by Bogdan Bogdanovic and a French team that's looking to put a blowout loss to Australia behind it. These two games could be tricky, but there's also the possibility that the American squad has already seen off its toughest challenge in the group stage and should comfortably saunter into the knockout rounds with relative ease.

With that being said, there's still a legitimate question going forward as to whether or not the level of physicality that good teams at this level deliver will continue to give the men's team trouble as it gets deeper into the tournament. Team USA did a good job of adjusting to the Australians upping the physicality level, and if it can continue to adjust in a positive manner, then it probably won't be a major problem for the Americans.

Meanwhile, the USA women have been playing at a ridiculously high level since stepping onto the court in Rio. They completely dismantled Senegal in a 121-56 rout, then beat Spain 103-63 on the very next day and now sit at 3-0 themselves following a 110-84 blowout of a pretty good Serbian team.

The USA women's team has always been perennial favorites to win gold in basketball, but it appears that this year could be a Carioca cakewalk for Tamika Catchings, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and the rest of an incredibly loaded USA squad. The U.S. will play Canada and China to round out the group stage, but at this point, the question may not be whether or not this team wins gold — the question could be just how big the margin of victory will end up being in each of the games leading up to the gold medal game.

To put things in perspective as far as the women are concerned, Team USA is averaging 111.3 points per game so far and shooting 57.6 percent from the field. The next best team in those two categories is Australia, and that team is just averaging 81.5 points per game and shooting a full 10 percentage points lower than Team USA. Diana Taurasi is currently seventh in the individual points per game table with an average of 17.7 points per so far, but she's done that while playing just 21 minutes per game. Aside from Elizabeth Cambage of Australia, the other players ahead of Taurasi have needed at least 31 minutes per game to do their work.

Simply put, the Americans are dominating the field right now and are playing at a completely different level than the rest of the field.

So, while the men's team could still face some difficulty on its way to living up to the always-lofty expectations that USA Basketball has for every Olympic tournament, the women appear poised to make history with their dominance in this particular tournament. Both squads are still favorites to win the gold, but they could have decidedly different paths on their way to the largest step on the podium.

Both teams continue their Olympic journeys this afternoon, with the men's team facing off with Serbia today, while the women will see just how much damage they can do against Canada. If the first three games are any indication, this is bad news for the competition.

Can you name every NBA player to play on multiple Team USA Olympic teams?
SCORE:
0/16
TIME:
5:00
1992, 96
Charles Barkley
1992, 96
Karl Malone
1992, 96
Scottie Pippen
1992, 96
David Robinson
1992, 96
John Stockton
1996, 2000
Gary Payton
2000, 04
Jason Kidd
2004, 08
Dwyane Wade
2004, 08
Carlos Boozer
2004, 08, 12, 16
Carmelo Anthony
2004, 12
LeBron James
2008, 12
Chris Paul
2008, 12
Kobe Bryant
2008, 12
Deron Williams
2012, 16, 20
Kevin Durant
2016, 20
Draymond Green

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