The USA is favored to win the gold in the Olympics but in their five exhibitions, the USA has already had a few close games against weaker teams. They have the deepest, most talented team but they haven’t played together enough to fully gel yet so there are going to be some hiccups along the way. They faced Serbia, whom they beat by 26 points in one of those exhibition games, but Serbia was without one of their best players in Bogdan Bagdonovich, and Nikola Jokic only played 28 minutes. There are a few other NBA stars on the team like Nikola Jovic, but nowhere near the talent of the USA team. It is going to be tough for Jokic to defend players like Lebron, AD and Embiid to name a few. He’s good on offense but not on defense, and their bench is nowhere near the depth that the USA team has. The USA team will come out fast and try to get a large lead and hold it the entire way. The key for a big USA win is to tighten up on defense, play as a team; a cohesive unit that is passing, looking for the open shots, good ball handling and not turnover the ball. And most importantly, they need to play with urgency as they are the better team and should dominate everyone else; they shouldn’t fall into the trap of playing down to the competition. However, at this stage of the competition, expect the USA to still play with some hiccups, while Serbia will make the adjustments and play much better in this game, making this rematch a closer one. Getting all these points is where the value lies.

Best bet: take the points with Serbia.