Team USA will open Olympic play with a rematch against France, the opponent that ended its 58-game winning streak at the 2019 World Cup.
The draw for the 12-team tournament was held in Switzerland on Tuesday with the Americans being put into a group with France, Iran and the team that qualifies from a tournament to be played in Canada later this year.
Canada, Greece, Turkey and China headline that qualifying tournament, to be played in Victoria, British Columbia, In June. The top two teams in each of the groups plus two wild cards will advance to the medal round.
The France game is set for Sunday, July 25, at Saitama Super Arena outside Tokyo.
"It's exciting to learn more about the Olympic schedule and who our preliminary-round opponents will be in Tokyo," Team USA coach Gregg Popovich said in a statement. "The three Olympic preliminary groups appear to be well balanced, and there are a good number of teams who have legitimate shots at the gold."
The two other groups for the competition are headlined by Australia and Spain.
In 2019, France knocked Team USA out of the medal round in an 89-79 victory in the World Cup quarterfinals in China, led by a dominant performance from Rudy Gobert, who had 21 points and 16 rebounds, and Evan Fournier, who had 22 points. The Americans finished seventh, their worst-ever World Cup result.
The U.S. had won 58 consecutive tournament games in FIBA and Olympic competition with NBA players, starting with the bronze-medal game at the 2006 world championships and continuing through every FIBA Americas, World Cup and Olympics event since.
