The United States absolutely drubbed China when these two teams met twice just last week in tune-ups for both teams for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The 49-point and 50-point wins were really impressive, but the Stars and Stripes will be asked to do something similar once again on the bigger stage in Rio in order to cover this spread.
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SCHEDULING
The Americans have had a nice run of play leading into the Olympics. They haven't left home yet, of course, and their two games against China probably won't do much for them in terms of preparing for the harder games to come later down the line in the tournament. However, we've got a good indication at this point when the United States is made of, and beating up the Chinese by 99 points over the course of three days last week is probably foreshadowing a really big victory here in Rio.
ROSTER ANALYSIS
The biggest problem the Chinese have here is that they just don't have the horses from the NBA like the Americans obviously do. They only have one NBA player as it is, that being Wang Zhelin of the Grizzlies, and the rest of their squad is made up of Chinese national players. Zhou Peng is the captain of the team, and he's going to be the biggest threat to put the ball in the hoop on a consistent basis, but he isn't anywhere near good enough to take on the Americans on their own.
The United States meanwhile, is a who's who of tremendous players. Forget about LeBron James and Stephen Curry not playing for the national team. Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and so many other fantastic players are on this roster, and there isn't such a thing as a lineup which Mike Krzyzewski can throw out there that shouldn't beat any team in the world up.
LIVE BETTING
In each of the first two games these two teams played against each other, it was the American defense which really set the tone for the game. In the first three quarters of play, China didn't exceed 16 points in any given quarter in either game. The entire team played between 14 and 19 minutes, and six players reached double-digits in scoring in spite of the fact that no one was on the court all that long.
In both games though, the Americans took their foot off the gas pedal just a bit in the fourth quarter. They won all eight quarters in the two games and should win all four in this game as well, but China might have a fighting chance to keep the game from getting more embarrassing in the final 10 minutes.
QUICK PICK
The Americans are the cream of the crop here in this field, and they aren't going to make a mistake in this one. Coach K is going to be insistent on his team playing defense, and that's going to create easy hoops on the other end of the court.
China might have the size to play with the United States, but it just doesn't have the athleticism. Unless it has a game where it just shoots the daylights out of the basketball, this will be another 40+ point loss.
Olympics Odds: United States 104, China 57
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