Men’s Basketball: Kevin Durant (USA)
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. wsuent.com

After five wins in the preliminary round, the single-game elimination portion of the men's basketball tournament at the 2012 Olympics has finally begun.

The U.S. will finish the day's action with their matchup against Australia. The game will be shown live on the NBC Sports Network at 5:15 p.m. ET. If you can't get to a television, you can watch a free live stream online by clicking here.

Team USA didn't face many tough tasks in the preliminary round, as they went 5-0. Wednesday's game doesn't promise to be much different. Australia went 3-2 in group play, but they shouldn't give the United States much trouble. They are 33.5-point underdogs.

While numerous teams have multiple NBA players on their roster, Australia has just one. Patrick Mills was drafted by the Spurs in the second round of this year's NBA draft, but has yet to play a game in the pros.

Warriors center Andrew Bogut was unable to play in London because of an ankle injury that ended his season in September.

The Americans won all of their games convincingly, except for their contest against Lithuania. They squeaked out a five-point victory in that game, despite beating every other opponent by at least 27 points.

Kevin Durant has been the team's most consistent scorer, putting up double-digit points in every game. He led Team USA with 18.6 points per game. Carmelo Anthony averaged 17.4 points per contest in group play.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski is feeling very good heading into the elimination round.

"I'm very confident," said Krzyzewski. "You have to win three tough games and you have to approach each game like it's a championship game, so you can't look beyond the (next) game. That's a focus, a seventh game focus for an NBA player and that's what we're trying to make sure that these guys have on their minds."

If the U.S. advances, they'll take on the winner of Brazil vs. Argentina on Friday.

PREDICTION: USA 105, Australia 67

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