USA vs. Australia Women's Basketball 2020 Tokyo Olympics: Odds and expert picks vs. spread, total for quarterfinal matchup

The group stage was relatively kind to the United States women's basketball team. Team USA went 3-0 to advance to the quarterfinals, and they remain the favorite to take home a gold medal. On Wednesday, the Americans take on Australia in a quarterfinal matchup. The winner will advance to the tournament's final four. 

Tip-off is set for Wednesday at 12:40 a.m. ET. Caesars Sportsbook has Team USA listed as a 15.5-point favorite. Team USA is also listed at -1700 on the money line (risk $1700 to win $100), while the Over-Under is set at 160. 

Before making any 2020 Olympics bets, be sure to see what SportsLine's Olympics expert, Mike Tierney, has to say.

A national sportswriter whose work appears in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Tierney has covered nine Olympic Games in person. For Rio in 2016, Tierney profited big-time. He told readers to bet Over on Team USA's gold medal count (41.5) and Over on Team USA's overall medal count (102.5). The result? 46 golds, 121 medals and two easy cashes.

And for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Tierney hit two of his three predictions: Germany (+200) to win the most gold medals and the United States winning Under 10.5 gold medals (+110).

Now, with the Tokyo Summer Olympics underway, Tierney has analyzed every angle of Wednesday's USA-Australia women's basketball matchup to help bettors find the best betting options. Tierney is leaning on the under for the point total.

He's also identified an x-factor that has him jumping all over one side of the spread. You ABSOLUTELY need to see what he has to say before locking in your picks. 

Who wins Wednesday's USA vs. Australia matchup? And what X-factor makes one side of the spread a MUST-BACK? Join SportsLine right now to find out which team in the USA vs. Australia game you should back against the spread, all from the expert who has crushed his Olympic picks!

Tierney's pick: 

Australia +14.5

Yes, the No. 2 seed is being spotted a bushel full of points. The top seed in red, white and blue has underachieved, going 3-0 straight-up but 0-3 against the spread. Australia has been just as unimpressive, having needed an outright win over Puerto Rico following two setbacks to slip into the quarterfinals. (A two-point loss to China ultimately was decided on an official's iffy call at the end.) The Opals' roster is loaded with a half-dozen WNBA players, which largely explains their straight-up win over the Americans in a recent exhibition game. Until Team U.S. approaches its potential and actually covers a line, keep leaning to the other side.