Team USA Basketball vs Tunisia: Watch Live Stream Online, Preview And Prediction For Olympic Matchup

By Anthony Riccobono | July 31 2012 1:58 PM

The USA men's basketball team recovered from a tough first quarter to pound France on Sunday, 98-71 in the Olympic opener for both teams. On Tuesday, the Americans will look to start group play a perfect 2-0 by beating Tunisia.

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Kevin Durant helped the U.S. earn the gold medal in the 2010 FIBA World Championship and will try to top his remarkable year with a gold medal in London. The forward for the Oklahoma City Thunder is a 3-time NBA scoring champion and a 3-time All NBA First Team member. He has helped the Thunder reach the NBA finals as the NBA’s leading scorer. It is projected that Durant will play as power forward and is expected to be a key player for Team USA.

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Tunisia lost a close one to Nigeria in its first match of the 2012 Olympic Games, 60-56.

Tuesday's game will air live on NBC Sports Network at 5:15 p.m. ET. You can watch a free live stream online by clicking here.

Team USA was led on Sunday by Kevin Durant, who finished with 22 points and nine rebounds. Kevin Love (14) and Kobe Bryant (10) also scored in double figures.

After struggling early on against France, Team USA outscored its opponent 30-15 in the second quarter, then 26-15 in the third to pull away.

Newly crowned NBA Champion LeBron James didn't quite have his usual stat line in the points column. Instead, the Miami Heat forward found other ways to get involved. Though he did post nine points, he also had five rebounds and led Team USA with eight assists. One of those assists came on a 60-foot bounce pass to Durant, who finished what was arguably the play of the game with an emphatic dunk.

Tunisia, meanwhile, does not have any NBA experience on its roster, and also got off to a slow start in its Olympic opener. Its late charge, however, was not enough to pull out the victory over Nigeria.

Tunisia managed just seven points in the first quarter and only eight in the second. They went into halftime trailing 31-15. They did, however, outscore Nigeria by ten in the game's final period to make it close, even cutting the deficit to two points on two separate occasions in the final minute.

Armine Rzig scored 15 of his team-high 18 points in the second half to lead the comeback for Tunisia, while Al-Farouq Aminu had 15 and Ike Diougu had 13 points and 10 rebounds for Nigeria.

Tunisia is also led by 7-1 Salah Mejri, who made a brief appearance for the Utah Jazz at the Orlando Summer League. He was the Defensive MVP of the Belgium League last year and might pose a problem for an undersized USA team on the offensive end.

If the United States wants to know where to focus defensively, it might be on Mourad El-Marouk, who can put up points in a hurry. He had eight against Nigeria and was 2-3 from beyond the arc, with one of those threes coming in the closing minute to trim Nigeria's lead to two.

The contest is not expected to be close, as the U.S. is a 54-point favorite over their opponent.

PREDICTION: USA 117, Tunisia 60