The United States Olympic basketball team did what was required, completing the group stage of the 2024 Paris Olympics men’s basketball event unbeaten and in a privileged position heading into the next round.

Steve Kerr’s men proved too strong for Puerto Rico in Lille this afternoon, beating the Gallos 83-104 to finish top of Group C with three wins from three, a total of 317 points for and a points difference of +64 – the best figures out of all of the teams during the group phase.

Anthony Edwards led the scoring at Stade Pierre-Mauroy, finshing with 26 points and three rebounds. Joel Embiid chipped in with 15 points and three rebounds while Kevin Durant added 11 points and LeBron, 10.

USA Basketball finish as one of the top two seeds

Best of all is that the United States have not only secured their place in the next round, but they head into the quarter finals as one of the top two seeded teams.

The top two teams in the three groups A-C will automatically qualify for the quarter finals along with the two third-placed teams with the best ranking. The teams will be placed into four pots: D-G. The two-ranked first-placed teams from the group phase will go into Pot D, while the lowest ranked first-placed team and the best-ranked second-placed team will go into Pot E.

After beating Puerto Rico, the US landed in Pot D therefore, will face a team from Pot G – the two best third-placed teams, ie. theoretically weaker rivals. That ended up being Brazil (4 points -7) and Greece (4 points -8). USA Basketball will face Brazil in the quarter final.

The winners will meet the winners of the quarter final between Serbia and Australia in the semi-final. It means that USA Basketball will effectively avoid meeting Germany, France and Canada until the gold medal match – depending on who advances…

This will be the tenth time that the United States and Brazil have crossed paths during the Olympic Games and the head-to-head makes stark reading: nine games, nine wins for the US.

The first meeting was at the 1952 Games which finished 57-53. USA Basketball and Brazil would meet again in all of the next five Olympic Games, the 1972 Munich encounter being the closest of all, ending 61-54. Another 16 years passed before they faced each other again – USA victories followed at Seoul 1988, Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, with the most recent game, 28 years ago, finishing 98-75.

All of the quarter final games will be played on Tuesday 6 August at Paris-Bercy Arena, tipping off at staggered times: 5 a.m. ET / 2 a.m. PT; 8:30 a.m. ET / 4 a.m. PT; 12 noon ET / 9 a.m. PT and 3:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. PT.