The men's basketball tournament crowns a winner at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo on Friday evening. Team USA takes on France in the gold medal contest. The Americans are a heavy favorite, as they have been throughout the tournament. France is a worthy challenger, with NBA talent on the roster.
Tip-off is set for Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET. Caesars Sportsbook has Team USA listed as a 13-point favorite. Team USA is also listed at -900 on the money line (risk $900 to win $100), while the Over-Under is set at 175.5.
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 Friday's USA-France men's basketball matchup to help bettors find the best betting options. He knows that Team USA has the talent edge, but France is a well-seasoned team that has played at a high level on the tournament. 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 Friday's USA vs. France 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. France game you should back against the spread, all from the expert who has crushed his Olympic picks!
Tierney's pick:
France +13
Much has changed since Team USA was stunned by France 83-76 in their tournament opener. Kevin Durant is playing out of this world. Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton and Devin Booker have recovered from an exhausting NBA playoffs. Coach Gregg Popovic has stopped issuing lame excuses. One thing has not changed: The U.S. team is relatively short — and France is still tall. Defensive wizard Rudy Gobert and sidekick Nicholas Batum patrol the paint so effectively that each accumulated four blocks in the semifinals against Slovenia. Seven-footers Vincent Poirier and Moustapha Fall are available off the bench. If the Americans are not nailing threes, they are in trouble. It's double-trouble if they continue starting slowly. The Aussies allowed them back from a 15-point deficit. Digging a similar hole here could be fatal. Team USA should win its fourth consecutive Olympic gold, but the spread belongs in the high single digits.
