Olympic 2012 Basketball: Team USA Begins Gold Medal Title Defense, Complete Listing Of Today's Matchups

Jul 29, 2012 08:55 AM EDT

The men's basketball of the 2012 London Games tips off Sunday at 4 a.m.

The first matchup of the day begins with a pair of African nations as Nigeria takes on Tunisia, each of whom are making their Olympic debut in the sport.

The incarnation of the '92 Dream Team, featuring LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin, begin their title defense against France.

After winning gold in 2008, Team USA is the projected favorites to take gold this year in London.

The French team will be without Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah, but will, however, have NBA All-Star Tony Parker available despite his eye injury.

NBA All-Star Pau Gasol will lead Spain as they take on China.

Coming off a silver medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Spain is believed to be the biggest threat to the United States for gold, but they'll have to get past Yi Jianlian and China to get to that point.

Most of the action can be seen on NBCSN. Below is a schedule of the match ups for the day.

Nigeria vs. Tunisia, 4 a.m. ET
Brazil vs. Australia, 6 a.m. ET, NBCSN
U.S.A. vs. France, 9:30 a.m. ET, NBCSN
Spain vs. China, 11:30 a.m. ET, NBCSN
Russia vs. Great Britain, 3 p.m. ET
Argentina vs. Lithuania, 5:45 p.m. ET, NBCSN

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