USA vs Czech Republic basketball betting picks – Olympics 2020

The United States wraps up the group stage of the men’s basketball tournament at the Tokyo Olympics this Saturday with a matchup against the Czech Republic. The USA will be looking to build on a dominant performance against Iran in this game before the knockout stage begins.

Basketball fans have already seen both the best and the worst of this United States squad through just two games in Tokyo. The Americans looked totally out of sorts against France, shooting just 44.6% from the floor and 35% from three-point range in an 89-79 loss. But in the team’s second game against Iran, the USA hit 48.7% of its three-point shots and rolled to a 60-30 lead in the first half, eventually finishing up the game with a dominant 120-66 victory. This matchup against the Czech Republic will be an interesting one; the Central European side isn’t nearly as good as France, but it should provide a better test than Iran did.

The Czech Republic narrowly defeated Iran 84-78 in its first game of group play. It followed that performance up with a 97-77 blowout loss to France, who will likely lock up the top seed in Group A with a win over Iran on Saturday. Considering this Czech squad got crushed by France and was involved in a competitive game with the Iran team that the United States just blew away, it’s tough to see an upset brewing in this one.

So the real question is: will the Czech Republic cover this 23.5-point spread? We are leaning towards no. The USA lives and dies on how hot its impressive array of shooters are, so it wouldn’t be too surprising to see a cold-shooting day lead to a final score that is closer than these basketball betting odds would suggest. With that said, we haven’t seen much from this Czech Republic group on defense so far in Tokyo to lead us to believe that the star-studded Americans won’t get plenty of open looks throughout the game.

The United States’ loss to France is cause for concern ahead of the knockout stage. As the USA starts facing other teams with NBA talent and strong defensive systems, there is the potential for this squad to get frustrated and have another off day. But against the clearly outclassed Czech Republic team on Saturday, look for the offensive floodgates to be wide open en route to another blowout win.