Rio Olympics: Basketball field set, groups and schedule finalized

Following the conclusion of the three 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs) around the world, the groups and schedule for the Olympic Basketball Tournament at the Rio 2016 Games were finalized on Sunday.

Serbia, Croatia and France qualified for this summer’s Olympics in Brazil by virtue of winning their OQT in Belgrade, Serbia; Turin, Italy and Manila, Philippines respectively.

Two of our Denver Nuggets, Nikola Jokic (Serbia) and Joffrey Lauvergne (France), were able to qualify for the Rio Olympics, while Danilo Gallinari (Italy) fell just short.

Related Story: Olympics: Nuggets Gallo & Jokic advance in qualifying play

When the Manila tournament concluded, Croatia, France and Serbia were drawn into the two groups of six teams previously determined during the Official Draw of the Rio 2016 Olympic Basketball Tournament, held on March 11 at FIBA’s headquarters in Switzerland:

Watch video of the Official Draw here.

Check out the results of the two draws in FIBA’s tweet below:

Both groups should be rather competitive, with the FIBA World Rank‘s # 1, # 5, # 6, # 11, # 14 and # 22 teams in Group A and # 2, # 3, # 4, # 9, # 12 and # 25 in Group B.

Check out the entire men’s basketball schedule for the Olympics here.

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The Nuggets’ Joffrey Lauvergne and his French teammates will get men’s basketball action started in the Olympics when they tip-off against Australia on Aug. 6. Nikola Jokic and Serbia will take on Venezuela later that evening, as well.

Keep it locked to Nugg Love for Olympics action, news and notes from around the league — and most importantly, for information surrounding your Denver Nuggets.