Tokyo 2020 men's basketball semifinal preview: Team USA, Slovenia on crash course
And then, there were four. Despite a worrying start to this Olympic tournament, Team USA battled through pool play and survived an early scare in the quarterfinals to reach the semis, where it's the heavy favorite to outlast Australia and eventually win gold. Will the Aussies put up a fight, and who will emerge on the other side?
Team USA (-12, 179.5) vs. Australia
Team USA has won three straight gold medals and is still the -400 favorite to win another this year. But this team is far from unbeatable. Just a week after losing to France in the first game of pool play, the Americans fell behind by 10 points to Spain early on before Kevin Durant's second-half heroics blew the game open.
The recipe for cracking Team USA's shiny veneer has been attacking it inside, which isn't a strength for the Australians. Aron Baynes, the team's best interior player, is out for the rest of the tournament, leaving Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, and Matisse Thybulle to win along the perimeter.
As serviceable as that group might be, that just isn't a fair fight against the likes of Durant, Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, and Co., all of whom are better equipped to win that battle in the backcourt. If Australia can't make the Americans pay in the paint, it won't keep this one close.
Pick: Team USA (-12)
Slovenia (-2, 174.5) vs. France
Do you really want to bet against Luka Doncic right now? The Slovenian wunderkind is making his case as the best player in the world, averaging an Olympic-best 26.3 points per game and ranking second in assists (8.0) after a near triple-double against Spain this past Sunday.
France has its own devastating combo of Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier, with the latter ranking seventh in scoring (18.3 points) in this field. Yet even the mighty Gobert doesn't provide an answer defensively for Doncic's shot-making, and without one, France may not have the horses to keep up with arguably the best player at the tournament.
Slovenia has never lost (17-0) in international play behind its star, winning four contests in this tournament by 21.3 points per game. Can France put the brakes on Doncic's all-world play? If not, it'll be another victim in Slovenia's epic run.
Pick: Slovenia -2
C Jackson Cowart is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on Twitter (@CJacksonCowart) or email him at cjackson.cowart@thescore.com.