Since starting the Summer Olympics off with two narrow losses, the Spanish national team has won each of its last four games in Rio. Spain will try to pull off a major upset this Friday in the semifinals against the United States.
Olympic basketball semifinal odds 2016: USA a heavy betting favorite vs. Spain for Friday
The United States faces what many believe to be their biggest remaining threat in the Olympic basketball semifinals against Spain on Friday.
Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
Spain is a 15.5-point underdog for Friday at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Led by some experienced NBA players and a strong core from Spain’s top team Real Madrid, Spain figured to be one of the United States’ biggest threats to win gold in 2016 coming into this tournament.
The team started off slow with upset losses to Croatia and Brazil, but has since won four straight games, including three straight wins by at least 19 points.
The United States, now a -1200 favorite on the odds to win the gold medal, looked like a much more cohesive unit in the quarterfinals against Argentina than it had in the last two games of the group stage, cruising to a 105-78 victory to advance into the semifinals.
The Americans have been strong on offense throughout the tournament, as would be expected with the level of talent that they have. But the defense looked much better than it had before against Argentina, and the unit will need to have another strong game on Friday against Spain to avoid an upset scare.
On the other side of the bracket, Australia is a 4-point favorite against Serbia. Australia has looked extremely impressive throughout the tournament, compiling a 5-1 record to this point with all five of its wins coming by at least 15 points.
The Australians were a 4.5-point favorite against Lithuania in the quarterfinals and left no doubt in a 90-64 blowout win. The team’s only loss of the tournament came in a hard-fought match against the United States.
Serbia narrowly edged out Croatia 86-83 in what was the only competitive game in the quarterfinal round. The team is now 3-3 in these Olympics, and will need to figure out a way to solve an Australian team that beat them 95-80 less than two weeks ago.
The Serbian men’s national team hopes to follow in the footsteps of its women’s team, which upset the heavily favored Australian women’s basketball team 73-71 in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
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