It all comes down to this. Can the Americans fulfill
everyone's lofty expectations by beating Spain and winning the gold? Is the USA
our basketball pick for the final? They have already won more than enough golds
so far in the Olympics, but one more wouldn't hurt.
Before the celebrations begin, LeBron James, Kevin Durant
and the rest of the gang will have to deal with the height and experience of
Spain in the fight for the gold medal. The basketball odds board has the USA
favored by 21 points.
Let's go over each team's journeys so far and then narrow
down our penultimate pick.
United States
It was assumed all along that the USA had too much talent
for any other team cope and thus far that's proven to be true.
The only true trouble came against Lithuania, whom the
Americans beat by only five points. Other than that, they've beaten each team
they've faced by at least 26 points.
After sweeping through the group stages, a quarter-final
date with Australia was on the cards. Following a slow start, the United States
kicked it into high gear and ran out as 119-89 victors by the final whistle.
In the semi-finals, the Americans were handed a rematch
against a tough-nosed Argentina team that featured Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola,
Carlos Delfino and others. True to form, the star power of the United States
had Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant all go off at some point in
the game and finished as 109-83 winners.
While Durant Melo are playing well and Kobe has been putting
up the points, the main man has been LeBron James, who's been doing it all.
Whatever the team has needed, there's LeBron to save the day.
In the semi-finals, the Americans were handed a rematch
against a tough-nosed Argentina team that featured Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola,
Carlos Delfino and others. True to form, the star power of the United States
had Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant all go off at some point in
the game and finished as 109-83 winners.
Spain
Though the Spaniards haven't been dominating the teams in
the same way as the USA, they have found ways to win at whatever cost.
The group stages proved to be a stern test for Spain. They
beat China and Australia rather easily but then only toppled Great Britain by a
point before losing to both Russia and Brazil.
Luckily for them the Spanish squad had done enough to
already book a spot in the quarters, where they beat Tony Parker and France by
seven in an intense, scrappy affair.
That put Spain in the semis against Russia and again it was
close for a majority of the game. In the end, Pau Gasol (16 points and 12
rebounds) had too much size and skill for the Russians to handle in the
interior.
A lot of the attention has been on the Gasol brothers but
the Americans need to keep their eyes on Jose Calderon, Rudy Fernandez and even
Juan Carlos Navarro, Sergio Lull and Serge Ibaka. Ibaka hasn't been used too
much in the Olympics but he could make a difference against the smaller USA
team.
Olympics Final Pick
If you've been watching the United States in this
tournament, you'd have noticed that they tend to start out slow before turning
it on in the second half.
That could end up happening again in this final, but Spain
actually has the players to make them pay for a sluggish opening.
Now, that's not to say Spain will win. The Americans are
simply too stacked and it's going to be hard for the Spanish to contain every
single one of their weapons for all 40 minutes. You never know who can catch
fire for this USA team.
That's why we're thinking the best angle may be taking Spain
on the betting spread for the first half as they look to catch Coach K's team
off guard and get off to a solid start.
Pick: Spain 1H +11.5