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August 2016
18/08/2016
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Friday's Games: Semi-Finals

RIO DE JANEIRO (Rio 2016 Olympic Games) - Here are the two Semi-Finals to look forward to on Friday at the Olympic Basketball Tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Click here to watch the games.

Spain v USA

A clash between No. 1 and No. 2 that many fans have been pining for since the USA's second consecutive victory over Spain in an Olympic Gold Medal Game in London will take place in Rio de Janeiro. Only this time, the meeting will be in the Semi-Finals. The Americans, who are first in the FIBA World Ranking ahead of second place Spain, played their best game of the Olympics on Wednesday when they hit back from an early deficit to beat Argentina, 105-78. Now comes a team and some of the players that they also eliminated from medal contention in the 2004 Quarter-Finals in Athens. Spain endured a far more difficult beginning to their Rio campaign than the USA with defeats to Croatia and Brazil but have rebounded with four straight victories, including a blowout triumph over an out-of-sorts France in the Quarter-Finals.

Australia v Serbia

The Australians are now just a single win away from a first Olympic medal but that triumph is going to be hard to come by. The Boomers pulled away from Serbia late in their first meeting in Group A but there are sure to be some new wrinkles to the game-plan of Serbia coach Sasha Djordjevic in the last-four meeting. Serbia were runners-up at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and success against the Australians, whose coach Andrej Lemanis has been terrific, would ensure them of a spot on the podium again.

FIBA