NBC Olympics TV and streaming schedule for Wednesday, July 31

When the U.S. men’s basketball team played South Sudan in one of its Olympic warmup games, it didn’t go as American fans figured it would.

LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and company didn’t shoot well early on, South Sudan played an outstanding game, and it took a huge late burst by James for the U.S. to escape with a 101-100 win.

On Wednesday, the teams meet again in their second game of the group stage, at 3 p.m. on USA Network. The U.S. has gotten better since the first matchup, as proven by a 110-84 rout of Serbia in its Olympics opener, but South Sudan proved again that it’s for real with a 90-79 win over Puerto Rico.

Around here, all eyes will be on Joel Embiid. As Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski wrote live from the arena in Lille, France, Embiid didn’t play well against Serbia, and he might not be fully healthy. The rest of the country will probably be focused on the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum, whose zero minutes of playing time against Serbia raised some eyebrows.

Back in Paris, the spotlight will be on the swimming pool, where American stars Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel will be in action. Ledecky will race in one of her signature events, the 1,500-meter freestyle, where she has not just the world record but the 19 fastest times of all time. Dressel will be in the 100-meter freestyle. NBC will show those races and others live.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid had a rough Team USA debut against Serbia. His Olympics might not get much better. | Mike Sielski

Another big event will take place in Marseille: the U.S. women’s soccer team’s group stage finale against Australia, at 1 p.m. on E! and Universo. The Americans are coming off one of their biggest wins in years, a 4-1 rout of Germany that clinched a quarterfinal berth. If the U.S. beats or ties the Matildas, it will win the group and play its next game in Paris.

Let’s also take a moment to highlight one sport you might not think much of: archery. The women’s team final was so close that it came down to checking a bull’s-eye with a magnifying glass. It proved to be South Korea, which won its 10th straight gold medal in the event — that’s every edition there has ever been.

Wednesday brings the men’s and women’s individual elimination rounds, at a gorgeous venue right in central Paris. USA Network will show some of the event in the 8 a.m. hour Philadelphia time.

» READ MORE: Sophia Smith powers U.S. women’s soccer to a 4-1 rout over Germany at the Olympics

NBC has lots of coverage on its broadcast and cable channels: the main NBC network, USA, CNBC, E!, and Golf Channel in English; and free-to-air Telemundo and cable channel Universo in Spanish. USA’s coverage is 24/7 every day, with live events when they’re on and replays the rest of the time.

There are also two extra cable channels created specifically for the Olympics called Paris Extra 1 and Paris Extra 2. They have live action, but NBC isn’t publishing the channels’ schedules in advance. All the big cable and satellite providers have the channels, as well as YouTube TV, Sling, FuboTV, and Hulu Live.

This year, the traditional NBC prime time show doesn’t have live action. Instead, it has highlights of the day and storytelling features. The good news is NBC has live coverage from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Philadelphia time on weekdays and even more on weekends, with the big events shown live in the afternoon here.

Every event is available to stream live on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. You’ll have to log in with your pay-TV provider, whether cable, satellite, or streaming platforms including YouTube TV, FuboTV and Sling TV. If you aren’t a pay-TV subscriber, you can watch via the premium tier of Peacock, NBC’s online streaming service. A subscription starts at $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year.

Peacock also has a live whip-around show called “Gold Zone” with hosts including Scott Hanson of “NFL Red Zone,” and a four-events-at-once live stream curated by NBC staff.

The NBC Sports and Peacock apps are available for mobile devices, tablets, and connected-TV devices including Android TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Samsung TV, and more. There’s an FAQ page on NBC’s website here with more details.

If you have a Comcast Xfinity X1 cable box, just say “Olympics” into the remote’s voice control function, and everything will come up, whether it’s on TV or online. Other cable and satellite TV providers may offer similar functions.

Here is the full event schedule for the entire Olympics, and here are live scores and results.

» READ MORE: Philly at the Paris Olympics: Local athletes at the games and when they’re scheduled to compete

As a general rule, our schedules include all live broadcasts on TV, but not tape-delayed broadcasts on cable channels. We’ll let you know what’s on NBC daytime and prime time shows whether they’re live or not.

On air from 4 a.m. to 5 p.m., with featured sports including basketball, field hockey, table tennis and soccer.

On air from 4 a.m. to 5 p.m., with featured sports including handball, archery, badminton, and fencing.