Men's Olympic Basketball: Russia, Spain Early Winners, USA Downs Tunisia

Meet Brazil, The Undefeated Contender Who Looks Absolutely Awful

Brazil scored all of four points in the first quarter against Britain on Tuesday. Yet somehow, the Brazilians are undefeated and a couple of tweaks from a potential run at the Team USA and gold.

A Golden Age Of Olympic Point Guards

Alexey Shved of Russia and Marcelinho of Brazil are among the unexpected stars of the London Olympics thus far, underscoring the heightened importance of top point guard play at the international level.

Juan Carlos Navarro Injury: Plantar Fasciitis Sidelines Spanish Basketball Star

The 2012 London Olympics are expected to pose few problems for Team USA as it attempts to challenge for another gold medal, but the basketball team could run in to a few roadblocks in the week's ahead. It seems one of its rivals could be shorthanded, however, as Spain is currently missing a valuable contributor in Juan Carlos Navarro.

Navarro might not be familiar to NBA fans considering he spent just one season with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2007, but the man better known as "La Bomba" is one of the better scoring guards in international basketball. Unfortunately for Spain, however, he missed Tuesday's game against Australia with plantar fasciitis -- and he'll likely miss more time, too, according to coach Sergio Scariolo.

"It was very strong and all of a sudden,'' Scariolo said. "It is nothing related with his former problems. It is a probably a new injury. It is plantar fasciitis, but it is probably in a different place [within the foot].

"He couldn't play. I don't know how many games he will miss."

Considering Spain is already without Ricky Rubio this summer due to injury, the lack of Navarro in the backcourt certainly isn't a good situation. Spain has a few other solid NBA players with Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Rudy Fernandez, but both of its starting guards being out would certainly spell trouble for the Spaniards against Team USA.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics hub. For more on Olympic basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic basketball section.

France Vs. Argentina, Olympics 2012: Tony Parker Scores 17 As France Wins, 71-64

Tony Parker scored 17 points and dished five assists as France downed Argentina, 71-64, on Tuesday during pool play at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Parker's San Antonio Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili led Argentina with 26 points, but he couldn't make up for his team's 4-for-23 performance from beyond the 3-point arc.

The French held the Argentinians at arms' length throughout the game, taking a 19-12 lead after the first quarter. After a tightly played second and third quarters, France pulled away again in the fourth with the help of a 7-0 run over a 3:36 stretch.

France was much sharper than their counterparts from distance, going 9-for-25 on their 3-point attempts. Five French players scored in double figures, with Parker's 17 supported by Nicolas Batum (14 points), Mickael Gelabale (13), Nando De Colo (11) and Kevin Seraphin (10) all took their turns filling the basket.

Luis Scola added 16 points and eight rebounds for Argentina.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics hub. For more on Olympic basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic basketball section.

How To Watch Team USA Basketball Vs. Tunisia Live

Team USA continues their quest for gold against Tunisia on Tuesday, starting at 5:15 p.m. ET.

Great Britain Vs. Brazil, Olympics 2012: Brazil Prevails, 67-62, Despite Hosts' Scare

The Brazilian men's national basketball team is a medal contender at the 2012 Olympics. Great Britain, kindly, is not. And yet the Brits gave Brazil all it could handle for most of Brazil's 67-62 win in group play on Tuesday.

The British led 11-4 after the first quarter, limited Nene Hilario to four points and seven rebounds and Anderson Varejao to four points and six boards, and got all of the major Brazilian players — Nene, Varejao, Tiago Splitter, point guard Marcelinho Huertas — in foul trouble.

But Brazil held Great Britain to 39 percent shooting from the field, forced 19 British turnovers, and finished the game on an 11-5 run to stave off what would have been the biggest upset in men's basketball of this Olympics.

Luol Deng had 12 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists for the Brits in the loss. Great Britain still hasn't won an Olympic men's basketball game at the 2012 Olympics — or since 1948.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics Hub. For more on Olympic basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic basketball section.

Lithuania Vs. Nigeria, Olympics 2012: Linas Kleiza Helps Lithuania Avenge Earlier Loss

The Nigerian national team was unable to make lightning strike twice in its bid at an Olympic medal, unfortunately, as it was unable to upset Lithuania for the second time in less than a month when they matched up in pool play Tuesday morning at the London Olympics.

Toronto Raptors forward Linas Kleiza and his Lithuanian teammates avenged their Olympic Qualifying Tournament loss to Nigeria -- held in Venezuela earlier this month -- with a 72-53 victory to improve to 2-0 in pool play thus far.

Kleiza led a balanced scoring effort with 13 points and six rebounds while teammate Darius Songaila, a bit player for the majority of his eight NBA seasons spent with five different teams, scored 12 points. Rimantas Kaukenas, a Euroleague veteran, rounded out Lithuania's double-digit scorers with a solid 10 points as Jonas Valanciunas -- last year's lottery pick who recently signed his rookie contract -- scored four points in the blowout victory.

The two teams stayed fairly close in the first half, but Nigeria's inability to knock down jumpers -- the African team made just one of their 16 three-point attempts -- eventually did them in as they were unable to recapture the magic that allowed them to defeat Lithuania (and subsequently earn their Olympic berth) at last month's qualifying tournament.

Nigeria's top players all performed reasonably well as NBA players Ike Diogu and Al-Farouq Aminu each scored 12 points apiece while Al-Farouq's brother Alade had 10 points and six rebounds, but the rest of the team failed to show up as Nigeria turned the ball over 16 times while making just 15 of their 50 shot attempts from the field.

Lithuania's next matchup will be France on Thursday morning whereas Nigeria has another difficult matchup against LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and the rest of Team USA on Thursday night.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics Hub. For more on Olympic basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic basketball section.

Australia Vs. Spain, Olympics 2012: Pau Gasol, Spain Pull Away From Boomers For 82-70 Win

A Spanish team without the services of its captain, Juan Carlos Navarro, struggled with Australia early, but Rudy Fernandez and Pau Gasol put the game out of reach before a late Australian run made the scoreline a respectable 82-70 win for Spain.

The Spanish are now 2-0, the Australians are now 0-2. The Boomers are clearly in the bottom three of their group with Great Britain and China -- whichever squad can emerge as the best of those three teams will advance to the group stage.

As crazy as it sounds, Spain's trio of NBA big men struggled early with the Boomers' front line composed of Aron Baynes and David Andersen, who you might remember from his stints with the Rockets, Raptors and Hornets. The Aussies earned an early six-rebound advantage while Spain shot 5-for-19 in the first quarter, allowing Australia to lead 19-14.

Then, things started to click for the Spanish, as they would go on to hit seven of their next 11 threes -- four of five from Fernandez, and even a three-ball from the shortened line by Gasol -- to pull away from the Australians. When the shots started falling, everything else starting falling into place as well: Australia tried chucking threes -- tried, they were 3-for-18 at one point after a 4-for-22 performance against Brazil -- and before long, the Spanish had shown their stuff as one of the top teams in the tournament and led by 20.That 20-point lead would shrink to 10 as Australia made a run against some Spanish reserves, but the game was never really in question.

Gasol finished with 20, while Fernandez had 17 on four threes. Marc Gasol added 12 points and seven rebounds. Credit goes to former St. Mary's guard and current San Antonio Spur Patty Mills as well as Barcelona's Joe Ingles for finding their way into double digits for Australia, and to current St. Mary's guard Matthew Dellavedova for hooking up with Baynes on a pair of alley-oops, one dunked, one tapped into the hoop.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics Hub. For more on Olympic basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic basketball section.

China Vs. Russia, Olympics 2012: Andrei Kirilenko, Russia Win Easily, 73-54

Timberwolves fans have to be pleased from the partnership on display between Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved, who led Russia to their second straight easy victory to open the second day of the Olympics men's basketball tournament with a 73-54 win over China.

The Russians advance to 2-0 in group play, although against weak competition, while China is 0-2. China will likely need to win two of their final three games against Australia and Great Britain to advance as one of the top four teams in Group B.

The Russians pulled away from the start, scoring 20 or more points in each of the first three quarters while never allowing the Chinese to score more than 15. Yi Jianlian was still the heart of the Chinese offense, following up a 30 point effort in the team's first game with 16 points against Russia, but no other Chinese player reached double digits and the Russians never had reason to fear.

Kirilenko and Shved didn't put up the absolutely gaudy numbers they recorded in their Olympics opener against Great Britain - in that game, Kirilenko had a tournament-high 35 points while Shved added 16 points and 13 assists - but Kirilenko still notched 16 points and brought down nine boards while Shved had 15 and six assists. The pair already played together this year with CSKA Moscow, and both have signed with the Timberwolves in recent weeks. Their CSKA teammate and former Kansas big man Sasha Kaun added 13 points and six boards while Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov had ten points.

For more on the Olympics, check out SB Nation's London 2012 Olympics Hub. For more on Olympic basketball, follow the 2012 Olympic basketball section.

Men's Olympic Basketball Schedule: USA Faces Tunisia, Spain Takes On Australia

The men's Olympic basketball tournament continues Tuesday with the United States taking on Tunisia.