United States vs. Australia preview and GameThread: women’s game still on, men’s game canceled

The USA Basketball women’s national team, featuring Washington Mystics center Tina Charles and guard Ariel Atkins for Team USA will be on at 2:30 p.m. ET. The game will be on NBC Sports Network. The men’s game that was scheduled for 6 p.m. ET against Australia is cancelled as a precautionary measure after Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal and Detroit Pistons forward Jerami Grant of Team USA were put into coronavirus protocols.

The American women’s team is in a similar predicament as the men in this one respect: they are a collection of talent that will have to get themselves together much more quickly while their European foes do, considering that Women’s EuroBasket was just last month. They are also coming off a loss in the WNBA All-Star Game on Wednesday which will be a wake-up call.

The Opals will have Mystics guard Leilani Mitchell will be without Las Vegas Aces center Liz Cambage, who withdrew from the Olympic team last minute to focus on her mental health.

That said, the news also came after Cambage was in a physical and verbal altercation with a Nigerian player during a closed-door scrimmage.

I’m giving the Americans the advantage in this one given that they lost their last game and that Australia literally just had this change.

Regarding a USA men’s basketball topic, here is a general question for you all. Whom do you think should replace Beal on the lineup? Do you think that his absence will be a point that can help the rest of the team build more chemistry together, or could this be the end of the Americans’ run of medal-winning runs since 1980 when the US boycotted the games in Moscow, Soviet Union? After all, they haven’t played well in this tournament, until the Argentina game last Wednesday.

Chat about the game here. Go Team USA!