The Olympic basketball setup will look somewhat bit totally different when groups start match play on the Saitama Tremendous Area in Japan.

The 2021 Olympics will debut a brand new format that breaks groups into three teams of 4 as an alternative of two teams of six. Which means the gold-medal successful staff will play fewer video games this time round, however the path to the stand will not be simple.

So, how does this complete factor work? Here is an evidence of the basketball match format on the Tokyo Olympics.

MORE: Full day-by-day Olympic basketball schedule

How does Olympics basketball match work?

This 12 months’s competitors will cut up 12 groups into three teams of 4. Every staff will play the opposite three groups inside its group for a complete of three video games. The primary- and second-place groups from every group and the 2 finest third-place groups general will advance to the knockout spherical.

A draw will then decide quarterfinal matchups. The three first-place groups and the perfect second-place staff shall be positioned in a single pot, and the remainder of the groups shall be positioned in one other. (Groups from the identical unique group can not play one another once more within the quarterfinals.)

As soon as these matchups are set, the match follows a typical single-elimination construction.

Olympics males’s basketball teams

• Group A: Czech Republic, France, Iran, United States
• Group B: Australia, Germany, Italy, Nigeria
• Group C: Argentina, Japan, Slovenia, Spain

Olympic ladies’s basketball teams

• Group A: Canada, Serbia, Spain, South Korea
• Group B: France, Japan, Nigeria, United States
• Group C: Australia, Belgium, China, Puerto Rico

Olympics males’s basketball schedule

• Group play: July 24-Aug. 1
• Knockout stage: Aug. 2-Aug. 7
• Gold-medal recreation: Aug. 6
• Bronze-medal recreation: Aug. 7

Olympic ladies’s basketball schedule

• Group play: July 25-Aug. 2
• Knockout stage: Aug. 3-Aug. 7
• Gold-medal recreation: Aug. 7
• Bronze-medal recreation: Aug. 7

FIBA males’s basketball rankings

(Final up to date March 2021)

1. United States
2. Spain
3. Australia
4. Argentina
5. Serbia
6. Greece
7. France
8. Lithuania
9. Russia
10. Italy

FIBA ladies’s basketball rankings

(Final up to date March 2021)

1. United States
2. Australia
3. Spain
4. Canada
5. France
6. Belgium
7. Turkey
8. Serbia
9. China
10. Japan