Dating back to 2004, the United States men’s basketball team is a perfect 19-0 in its last 19 games in the Summer Olympics. The 2016 squad will try to extend that win streak to 20 games when they face Australia on Wednesday.
Olympic odds 2016: Americans huge favorites vs Australia in Rio hoops for Wednesday night
With two blowout wins already in the books, the United States men’s basketball team seeks another on Wednesday against Australia.
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The Americans are pegged as 29-point favorites against Australia on the Rio Olympics odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
Any doubts about the potential cohesiveness of this year’s Olympic team for the United States have quickly been erased after the first two games of group play. The USA demolished China in a 119-62 blowout, and followed that up with a 113-69 win over Venezuela.
Venezuela actually led 14-13 at one point in the first quarter and ended the quarter with the game tied at 18-18, but got blown away in the game’s remaining three quarters.
If the Americans get off to another slow start on Wednesday, the Australian team would be in a much better position than Venezuela was to take advantage of the situation. Australia pulled off an impressive 87-66 win over France as a 6.5-point underdog on the betting lines, and then improved to 2-0 in the group stage with a 95-80 win over Serbia.
Patty Mills, Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellavedova lead a hard-working Australian group that might not roll over quite as easily as China and Venezuela did against the Americans.
Once going off at just -1200 to win the gold medal in 2016, the United States are now a commanding -2000 favorite to do so at the sportsbooks. Spain and France came into the tournament as the biggest threats to the United States, each going off at +1000 on the betting lines, but those odds have fallen as neither team has looked sharp thus far.
Spain has suffered a pair of ugly losses to Croatia and Brazil, while France is coming off its loss to Australia and a win over China. Lithuania, which entered the tournament at +2500 to win the gold medal at the sportsbooks, is the only team besides the USA and Australia to start off group play with a 2-0 record.
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