Red, white and blue usually adds up to gold at the Summer Olympics basketball competition.

The American contingent has won the gold medal in 14 of the 17 games in which it has participated, starting in 1936 when basketball was played outdoors in Berlin.

The U.S. team also has won five times in six tries since NBA players became eligible to play on the Olympic team in 1992.

Overall, Team USA went to Rio with a 130-5 all-time Olympic record; 45-3 with NBA players.

At the 2012 Olympics in London, the U.S. routed Argentina in the semifinals, 109-83, then defeated Spain, with NBA players Marc and Pau Gasol, 107-100 to strike gold.

This year’s 12-man, all-African-American squad of NBA veterans is a prohibitive favorite to continue the global domination.   

The Americans won five, pre-Olympic exhibition games over Australia, China twice, Venezuela and Nigeria by an average of more than 42 points.

In Rio, Team USA started with pool-play against China, Venezuela and Australia. Preliminary games continue 6 p.m. Aug. 12 against Serbia, and France at 1:15 p.m. Aug. 14.

Spain and France, with NBA star Tony Parker, are given the best chances of challenging Team USA from the 12-team field.

The quarterfinals are Aug. 17; semifinals, Aug. 19.

The gold medal game is set for 2:45 p.m. Aug. 21, at the 16,000-seat Carioca Arena in Rio de Janeiro. The games will be televised on NBC, Telemundo and various cable stations.

Four-star salute: Carmelo Anthony, becomes the United States’ first four-time basketball Olympian. The 32-year-old Brooklyn native played for Team USA in 2004 in Athens (bronze medal), 2008 in Beijing (gold medal) and 2012 in London (gold medal).

Notable absentees: Team USA could be much stronger. Among the missing in Rio are megastars LeBron James, Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, James Harden and Russell Westbrook.

Looking back …

Black history: American teams were all white until 1948, when Don Barksdale, a 6-foot-6 forward from UCLA, was selected by U.S. Coach Adolph Rupp. Team USA went undefeated that year, annihilating France 65-21 in the final.

Teenage star: In 1968, 19-year-old Detroit native Spencer Haywood averaged a team high 16.1 points in leading Team USA to the gold. While most players during the amateur era (pre-1992) were juniors and seniors from big-name colleges, Haywood made the squad after one year at Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado.

Nightmare remembered: Perhaps more than for all the victories, older U.S. fans’ most vivid Olympic memory is of a gut-wrenching defeat — a controversial 51-50 loss to the former Soviet Union in the 1972 Olympic final in Munich.

With 3 seconds left, Doug Collins hit two foul shots, putting Team USA up 50-49. The Soviet team needed to go the length of the floor for a last-gasp chance.

Twice, the Soviet team in-bounded the ball and failed to score. To the astonishment of Americans, both times officials ruled the plays be taken over due to technicalities with the clock.

So on the third in-bound attempt, Alexander Belov received a Hail Mary pass from Ivan Edeshko near his own goal and scored the game winning basket as time expired.

It was Team USA’s first basketball loss after 66 straight wins, and may have been the most devastating moment for Americans in the Olympics.

Unanimously, the Americans refused the silver medal and took the next flight back to the United States.