USA Men v Spain: Betting Preview
Dave Carney 8/2/2021
What’s on the table today?: USA Men’s Basketball vs Spain: Betting Preview
This is what happens when you don’t take care of business in group play, you get to face another potential Gold Medal team in the Semi-finals. The USA did end group play with a strong 119-84 win over the Czech Republic which did land the US in the top 2nd place team.
The matchup with Spain however, is going to be the toughest test by far for a USA team that’s already lost to France in the Olympics and twice in the exhibition games.
In Sunday’s game, Luka Doncic just missed the first triple-double in the Olympics in nine years as the Slovenians edged Spain 95-87 to give them the top seed from their group.
Ricky Rubio scored 18 points for Spain, but missed a 3-pointer that would have tied it at 90 before Slovenia finished it out.
Tonight *(11:40pm,CT)* / tomorrow morning *(12:40am ET)* we’ll get to see how far the USA Men have come, and can Spain bounce back after a tough loss on Sunday.
The opening spread had the USA Men as (-11.5) favorites, but has now moved to the USA (-12.5) on BetMGM. The total opened at 180 and has now been bet down to 178.5 with the OVER being juiced at (-120), the UNDER at a solid (+100).
Looking back at some recent history between the USA Men and Spain and you’ll see why this is slated to be such a tough game for both squads. The Americans won 82-76 in the 2016 Olympic semifinals, 107-100 in the 2012 gold-medal game at London, and 118-107 in the gold-medal matchup at Beijing in 2008.
With the USA seemingly catching it’s stride it’s easy to see why the line is USA (-12.5), but that is just way too rich for my blood in this years’ competition. I’m also not sold this will be an ultra high scoring game, however the total of 178.5 is destined to go OVER.
My predictions for tonight/tomorrow morning’s game: Spain (+12.5) at -110 / OVER 178.5 at -120.
**For more info on TOTAL plays, OVER/UNDER, and PLUS/MINUS plays, TEASER cards and more, check back through some previous columns for detailed information**
REMEMBER – don’t bet based upon my recommendations. Do your research. Stay in your lane
