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With the remaining two trips to the semifinals in the women’s 5×5 basketball competition on the line on Wednesday, Aug. 7, Germany will be facing the host country, France, at 12 p.m. ET (Peacock), and Team USA will take on Nigeria at 3:30 p.m. ET (USA Network).
France vs. Germany
12:00 p.m. ET; winner plays either Spain or Belgium
Les Bleues have had a successful tournament so far. They’ve gotten stellar performances from Gabby Williams, who is averaging 13.6 points, six assists and 4.6 rebounds at the Olympics. Her play, along with her teammates Marine Johannès and Marième Badiane, is a big reason why France won two of their three games in Group B.
With the French men advancing to the semifinals on Tuesday, the women could join them on Wednesday and set up a historic scenario with both attempting to advance to the gold medal games, where Team USA likely would await as the opponents.
To get there, they’ll have to go through Germany, who have looked relatively good outside of their 87-68 defeat to the United States. However, given that the Americans have won 58 games in a row, it’s hard to knock Germany for the loss. In their pair of wins, they’ve gotten the job done thanks to Satou Sabally’s play. The Dallas Wings player has bounced back from her injury, helping Germany begin these Olympics with a win over Belgium before scoring 33 points against Japan.
If she gets going against France, they’ll have a chance to upset the home team; if not, they’ll need someone like Leonie Fiebich or her younger sister Nyara Sabally (whose status is uncertain after she missed Germany’s last two games with a back injury) to play above and beyond to still have a shot at advancing.
Nigeria vs. Team USA
3:30 p.m. ET; winner plays either Australia or Serbia
What do people with power want? More power. Team USA is as big and as dominant as can be. No squad has terrorized a sport as relentlessly and repeatedly. I feel safe saying that their Olympic winning streak—which is at 58-consecutive wins and counting—will never be topped.
The rest of the world is catching up, and once they do, you’ll see the Americans losing occasionally, and the invincibility they currently demonstrate will vanish. But not today.
You know their names: A’ja Wilson, Brenna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and the list goes on. At these Olympics, their armor has shown signs of tenderness. The guards have noticeably struggled to dominate on the perimeter. With the physicality allowed in FIBA play, you’ve seen teams muck up the game during the opening quarters. In the end, however, the best players during this tournament are still donning the red, white and blue. With four quarters to play, that quality eventually overwhelms their opponents and results in comfortable, double-digit wins.
For Nigeria to pull off the improbable, they’ll have to play the best basketball the country has ever displayed. It is unlikely to happen, but so far, Nigeria has shocked the basketball world by reaching the quarterfinals, a feat no men’s or women’s team from Africa has ever achieved. It’s all gravy from here. Playing with house money, expect Nigeria to come out inspired and with everything they have during the opening minutes of their matchup on Wednesday.
Ezinne Kalu is a player to watch on the Nigerian side. She scored 21 points in their win against Canada in their final Group B game. The guard has led Nigeria in scoring in all three games they’ve played at the Olympics.
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