Team USA had a couple of small stumbles during pool at the 2012 London Olympics, but the team led by LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Co. never faltered when it came to being ahead on the final scoreboard. Coach Krzyzewski is hoping those small bits of adversity help his team on Wednesday afternoon as they face Australia in the first round of knockout play.
The game is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. ET. It will be broadcast live in the United States on the NBC Sports Network and also be available via a live online stream at NBCOlympics.com.
It shouldn't be incredibly difficult for the Americans to overcome Australia considering they've done just that in all 13 of the two team's meetings, but Team USA has seemingly been a bit lucky thus far considering they're shooting an absurd 46 percent from beyond the 3-point arc. The Americans obviously have the ability to score by slashing, too, but it remains to be seen how quickly they'll be able to make that adjustment if their shots suddenly start to stop falling.
As far as Australia is concerned, they were able to put together a good run behind Patty Mills and his Aussie teammates with wins over China, Great Britain and Russia in pool play. They lost to the two elite teams in their pool, however, and playing America is going to be an even more difficult matchup than Spain and Brazil.
For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics hub. For more on Olympic basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic basketball section.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.