TOKYO — The men’s basketball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics comes to a close on Saturday with a gold medal game between the United States and France in the morning (Friday night in the United States) and a third-place matchup between Australia and Slovenia later in the day.

The Americans, who have won three straight gold medals in the event dating back to 2008, dropped their tournament opener to France, raising questions about the team’s preparedness for these Games. It did not help they had multiple shaky showings, including two losses, in a run of warm-up games before traveling to Tokyo.

But they have improved in every game since. The question is whether they have improved enough, in this short amount of time, to secure the championship.

How to watch

The gold medal game will be on NBC on Friday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. The bronze medal game will be on the USA Network at 7 a.m. Saturday.

The favorites

Despite their loss in the opener, the Americans are still favored to win their 16th gold medal in men’s basketball.

A big part of their recent surge in confidence has been the play of Kevin Durant, who became the country’s career leading scorer in Olympic play during the tournament and has looked dominant in the team’s last two games. After scoring only 10 points in the loss to France, he is leading the team with 19.0 points per game. Jayson Tatum, coming off the bench, has added 14.4 points per game, while Jrue Holliday has chipped in 12.0.

For all the Americans’ scoring prowess, it will be their team defense that could make the difference. France, like basically every other team the United States has faced, tried to use size and strength to bully the Americans’ smaller lineups. Rebounding on both sides of the ball will be crucial.

The French

The French team — whose best men’s basketball results are silver medals in 1948 and 2000 — narrowly slipped into the championship game with a 90-89 win over Slovenia, needing a last-second block from Nicolas Batum on Klemen Prepelic’s layup attempt to seal the result.

Rudy Gobert, the seven-foot-one center, has been a vital presence for France in the paint. He finished with nine points, 16 rebounds and four blocks in the game against Slovenia, and the French will certainly look to establish his presence early and often in the title game.

Evan Fournier, who signed with the Knicks this week, exploded for 28 points against the United States in teams’ first meeting. The American players afterward praised the French team’s execution on offense, which comes in part as a result of many years of continuity in the program. In some sense, the game pits the well-drilled French against the supremely talented Americans.

Playing for the bronze

Australia arrives in the third-place match after losing, 97-78, to the United States in the semifinals. Slovenia topped Germany, 94-70, in the quarterfinal round, before falling in the heartbreaker to France.

The main attraction for casual fans will be the chance to watch Luka Doncic, the Dallas Mavericks star, get back to work in what has been a scintillating Olympic debut. He recorded only the third Olympic triple-double ever — and the first since LeBron James in 2012 — with a 16-point, 10-rebound, 18-assist performance against France.

And Doncic’s 48 points in Slovenia’s group stage game against Argentina is tied for the second-highest total in Olympic history. (Oscar Schmidt of Brazil scored 55 in a game in 1988.)