Team USA vs. Serbia Olympics Basketball: Betting Insights & Tips
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00:00Same line as yesterday, Team USA against Serbia, the East Coast live time if I'm not mistaken
00:11is Sunday at 11.15am.
00:16And I guess that's the best they could do with this opening round with so many games
00:19being played.
00:21Team USA, 12.5 point favorites.
00:24It's one of the higher totals, by the way, on the board for any basketball game being
00:29played at the Olympics.
00:30I see 180.5 which tells us it's going to be closer to an NBA game than some of these others
00:36which the totals are just super low like college games.
00:38So Carlin, let's break it down.
00:40Yesterday you said you had some confidence in Team USA.
00:44Let's revisit that conversation.
00:45Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think they'll cover the spread.
00:49I don't have any doubts about that.
00:52It's a statement game for Team USA, right?
00:54And that's weird saying that when they're expected to meddle and everybody's like, hey,
00:58one game at a time.
00:59But this is a statement game in terms of sending a message to the other 11 teams in the pool.
01:04Like hey, we are the team to beat and we are running on all cylinders.
01:08Yes, we had a couple of close calls against South Sudan, we had a close call against Germany.
01:13But ultimately, now the games count.
01:15Now the games matter.
01:16The best of the best is going to show up and get it done.
01:19And I think you're going to see a different rotation out of Steve Kerr.
01:21I think he was trying things in the pre-tournament games and trying to figure out who's going
01:26to work best with who in terms of rotations.
01:29But that spread is really going to get covered after the first real wave.
01:33Where Team USA is going to pull away from teams is when the bench gets in.
01:36Once you get into the bench on these deeper teams, they're just not as deep as the Americans.
01:40Like that's where they're going to lose games and that's where they're going to pull away.
01:43So I do expect them to send out, get out there, send a message and different in NBA games
01:48where you can take your foot off the gas pedal.
01:51In FIBA competition, points matter, right?
01:53Like the point differential matters.
01:55So you want to knock teams out.
01:57You want to just dominate and score as much as you can and even take the shot.
02:01Even if you're up 20 with five seconds left on the clock, you're going to shoot that ball
02:04because you just want as many points as you possibly can have.
02:07So I do expect them to go out there, cover the spread.
02:09And it is, to your point, going to look closer to an NBA total.
02:11So go over on the total as well.
02:13Yeah.
02:14Yeah.
02:15Real quick.
02:16Am I assessing this right?
02:17And you tell me, maybe I'm off because I'm just thinking it through.
02:20That if you were going to bet this, if you were going to bet this, would you be more
02:26interested, Carlin?
02:27And I don't know, you'd have to tell me how, you know, international basketball works,
02:31but the bench would be in the second quarter, if I'm not mistaken, mostly.
02:35So would you, would you look for a team USA second quarter bet if that's the case?
02:40I would.
02:41I would.
02:42Against a team like Serbia?
02:43Yeah, I would.
02:44And because the teams like, you know, Serbia's, Serbia is one of the better teams that are
02:47going to be at the Olympic games.
02:48They just don't have the depth.
02:49Once you get beyond the first five guys and God, you know, forbid, they get into any sort
02:54of foul trouble or anything like that.
02:56That's where you have to go deep into your roster.
02:58And that's where team USA is going to be bringing on NBA all-stars.
03:01And Serbia is going to be bringing on pretty good players that play, you know, overseas
03:05at a pro level, which is not a bad thing, but they're not NBA all-stars.
03:09They're not Jason Tatum.
03:10You know, they're not Anthony Edwards.
03:11They're not guys like that.
03:12So there is a level and a difference where you can definitely look at that second quarter
03:17and say that team USA, even if they start slow in the first, the second quarter, they
03:21should come out and dominate.