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Game Preview: USA vs Spain (Semifinals)

After dominating Argentina on Wednesday, Paul George and the United States men's basketball team will face a familiar opponent in Friday afternoon's Olympic semifinal round.

For the fourth straight Olympics, Team USA will play Spain in the knockout round. The two teams met in the gold medal game in each of the past two Olympics, with the USA winning 118-107 in Beijing in 2008 and 107-100 in London in 2012. The Americans also beat the Spaniards in the quarterfinal round in Athens in 2004, coming away with a 102-94 win.

It seemed inevitable that these two countries — the top two teams in the FIBA World Rankings — would meet in Rio, but it's a bit of a surprise that their matchup comes in a semifinal rather than the gold medal game.

They're meeting now instead because Spain failed to win its group. Playing without frontcourt mainstay and All-NBA center Marc Gasol (rehabbing a broken foot), the Spaniards dropped their first two contests in Rio, falling by two points to Croatia and one point to hosts Brazil.

The Spanish team found its rhythm in the second half of the group stage, however. They beat Lithuania by 50 and then easily handled Argentina by 19 in their final two group games.

Then on Wednesday afternoon, Spain rolled to a 92-67 win over France. Yes, that's the same French team that only lost by three points to the United States on Sunday despite resting star guard Tony Parker. Parker played against Spain, but the French got blown out.

Spain doesn't have Marc Gasol, but they do have his big brother, Pau, who's been as good as ever in Rio. The 36-year-old 7-footer leads Spain in scoring at 17.0 points per game on 51.3 percent shooting. Gasol ranks first among all players in Rio in rebounding (8.7 boards per contest) and second in blocked shots (2.2 rejections per game).

But as good as Gasol has been, he's gotten plenty of help from his talented teammates. Chicago Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic led all scorers with 23 points in the win over France, going 5-for-8 from 3-point range. 22-year-old center Willy Hernangomez, just weeks away from the start of his rookie NBA season with the New York Knicks, added 18 points off the bench on 9-of-12 shooting.

And then there's the Spanish backcourt, which includes numerous players with NBA experience. Players like Ricky Rubio, Jose Calderon, Rudy Fernandez, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Sergio Rodriguez.

Aside from the U.S., Spain has arguably the most balanced team in Rio. They're second in 3-point shooting (37.7 percent), second in rebounding (39.2 per game), and second-to-last in turnovers (11.8 per contest), trailing only the Americans in each of those categories.

But the United States should enter Friday's matchup with lots of confidence. After three straight closer-than-expected wins at the end of the group stage, the Americans blew out Argentina on Wednesday, rolling to a 105-78 win. The Argentinians jumped out to an early 19-9 lead, but the Americans answered with a 27-2 run and never looked back.

That run more or less coincided with Pacers All-Star Paul George's introduction to the game. George was fantastic off the bench, putting together his best all-around game in Rio. PG tallied 17 points, eight rebounds, three steals, and three blocks in 21 minutes.

Given his defensive prowess, George figures to be a major part of head coach Mike Krzyzewski's game plan against Spain.

The first Pacers player on an American Olympic team since Reggie Miller in 1996, George is hoping to bring a gold medal back to Indiana. If the United States can beat Spain, he will get that opportunity.

The USA-Spain winner will meet the winner of Friday's other semifinal between Australia and Serbia in the gold medal game on Sunday afternoon. The two semifinal losers will square off on Sunday morning for the bronze medal.