Staff USA narrowly escaped with its life within the semifinal match towards Serbia on Thursday, successful 95-91.
After opening as 17.5-point favorites towards Serbia, sharps guess them all the way down to +15.5 by sport time (we acquired them at +16), and so they almost upset the goliath Individuals in a 95-91 slugfest.
Thursday’s semifinal felt like Recreation 7 of the NBA Finals and, actually, was in all probability the true gold medal match.
France, whereas profiling as a group with loads of dimension and energy, lacks the flexibility {that a} Nikola Jokic brings them.
Give Victor Wembanyama 4 extra years earlier than we begin anointing him, the newly “Chosen One.”
He and guard Evan Fournier are extremely unlikely to have the ability to lead their solution to victory towards Staff USA.
USA opened as 12-point favorites towards France, however sharp bettors have skyrocketed that quantity, transferring it to 16 factors on the time of writing.
USA is -1600 to win the gold medal on Saturday.
USA vs. France prediction
Serbia at one level was 15-for-29 from 3-point vary and ended the sport 15-for-39 from past the arc.
Non-coincidentally, Serbia blew a 15-point lead throughout that 0-10 stretch.
When the 3-point pictures dry up, who do you go to?
The reply for France needs to be to play loads of Rudy Gobert and Wembanyama down the stretch and see if the 2 towering huge males can carry them to victory.
Two bets intrigue me right here, the primary being the sport totals underneath, as we might count on loads of hard-nosed, bodily protection with a really favorable whistle to the home-country French and hard shot-making circumstances.
Search for France additionally to cowl this unfold towards the USA as the road has gotten out of whack at 16, there needs to be some buyback right here on the road.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
The French aren’t pretty much as good as Serbia, however that doesn’t imply both group needs to be 16-point underdogs on this bodily play-style that the Olympics breeds.
PICK(S): France (+16) | Underneath 176.5 (-110)
