Golden Ticket, Day 4: Heavyweight Battle

Throughout the Olympic men's basketball tournament, FanHouse will prioritize the games of the day for you in Golden Ticket.

Two heavyweight battles on the docket for the fourth day of the men's tournament, plus a couple other intriguing matchups.

GOLD: United States vs Spain, 10:15 a.m. EST The Group B lead (and top seed, I reckon) will be at stake when the Spaniards and Americans face off. However, a loss for either team wouldn't mean a ton. This might be the only team against which Team USA loses two starters' position battle: Jose Calderon could be better than Jason Kidd, and Pau Gasol might be closer to Carmelo Anthony than you'd think. Of course, the United States has better depth and stronger talent at the top, with LeBron and Kobe. Can Spanish camaraderie bridge the gulf and take Spain to a win? We'll see ... well, Eastern and Central time zone fans will see. Folks in the Mountain or Pacific time zones can either watch online at NBCOlympics.com or catch it on a tape delay. Awesome work, NBC!

SILVER: Croatia vs Lithuania, 2:30 a.m. EST The Croats finally dropped a match with a stinker against resurgent Argentina. Lithuania continues to ride high after salting the Argentines on the opening day, and along with only the U.S. and Spain remains undefeated. The guard battle should be excellent, and you'd suspect plenty of made threes here -- Croatia is still at 50% from deep on the tournament. Lithuania's Linas Kleiza has been an uber-efficient scorer and has pulled seven boards a game.

BRONZE: China vs Germany, 8:00 a.m. EST China could use a big win here to slip onto the path toward the medal round. Yao Ming really dominated against Angola (surprise). Chris Kaman and Dirk Nowitzki should impede the big China frontline a bit more. Both teams have questionable backcourt outfits, as we've said and seen and said again after seeing. Despite the 1-2 record, China's been good, hanging with the States for a hot minute and taking Spain to OT. Germany, however, followed its win over the Aussies with two double-digits losses ... and it hasn't met the U.S. yet. I'll guess China in an upset of minor proportions. (Actually, I might take a nap.)

In other action: Greece vs Angola, Russia vs Australia, Iran vs Argentina.