How to watch Dawn Staley, A’ja Wilson and Team USA basketball games in Tokyo Olympics
The Olympics are underway in Tokyo, where coach Dawn Staley and the Olympic women’s basketball team are hoping to bring back the Americans’ seventh consecutive gold medal in the sport.
For those of us looking to catch some of the action live from the United States, we’ll probably need to brew some late-night coffee or grab a Red Bull — at least for the upcoming group stage, where every Team USA matchup is scheduled to begin right after midnight on the East Coast.
The preliminary round, which ended Monday, Aug. 2, split countries into three groups of four teams. Staley, A’ja Wilson and Team USA will be competing in Group B alongside France, Japan and Nigeria. Team USA won its first group round game against Nigeria 81-72. Wilson led the way, scoring 19 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in her Olympic debut. The Americans went on to defeat Japan and France, going 3-0 in group play.
Quarterfinals begin on Tuesday, Aug. 3, with semifinals Friday, Aug. 6 and the medal games Saturday, Aug. 7.
All group round Team USA games will air live on USA Network. The gold medal game is tentatively set to broadcast live during NBC’s primetime coverage.
Current USC player Laeticia Amihere is part of Canada’s women’s basketball team. Team Canada did not advance to the quarterfinals after going 1-2 in group play and losing a point-differential tiebreaker to Australia.
Former Gamecock Allisha Gray represented Team USA’s 3-on-3 squad, which took home gold in the first 3-on-3 women’s basketball tournament in Olympics history.
Here’s when and where to catch the games. TV channels are listed when games are set to be televised. All games will also be available for online streaming on NBC’s Peacock, NBCOlympics.com, the NBC Sports website and YouTube TV.
Team USA women’s basketball schedule
Tournament play, matchups TBD
- Quarterfinal Wednesday, Aug. 4: 12:40 a.m. vs. Australia on USA Network
- Semifinals: Friday, Aug. 6 (12:40 and 7 a.m.)
- Bronze medal game: Saturday, Aug. 7 at 3 a.m.
- Gold medal game: Saturday, Aug. 7 at 10:30 p.m. on NBC (subject to change) replay at 9 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 8 on USA
This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
