RIO DE JANEIRO — The unpredictable men’s Olympic basketball competition needed the final day of group play to not only decide Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchups but to decide which teams from Group B would advance to the knockout round.
The day started with all six Group B teams — Croatia, Spain, Lithuania, Argentina, Brazil and Nigeria — alive for a spot in the quarterfinals. Of those six, just Lithuania and Argentina were guaranteed to advance.
Because Spain beat Argentina and Croatia beat Lithuania — Brazil’s win over Nigeria ended up being meaningless — Croatia, Spain, Lithuania and Argentina in that order are the top four seeds from Group B, setting up these quarterfinal games (all times Eastern):
- USA-Argentina, 5:45 p.