On Thursday it's a matchup between the two best women's basketball teams in the world. The United States women's basketball team takes on Australia in the semifinals of the medal rounds. The game is scheduled for a 12:00 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network. The 2012 Olympic Women's Basketball USA vs. Australia Odds have the Americans favored by 24 points with the total set at 154 points.
In what pits the best two women's basketball teams in the world, the United States still has a 24-point advantage, according to the oddsmakers. That's a pretty impressive amount of respect for the Americans. The United States has averaged just under 92 points per game on average during these 2012 Olympic Games while holding their opponents to an average of just 54.5 points. Also, during that stretch the most points the Americans surrendered to an opponent was only 66 to China in pool play.
The Australians are widely picked as the second best team in the world today. Yet, unlike the Americans they haven't been able to win every game in the the tournament so far, losing to France back in pool play action 74-70. The high point mark for the Aussies is only 75 points, which the Americans passed in every single game so far. However, the Aussies win ugly and with not a lot of points being scored. On average they scored only 71 points per contest while allowing their opponents to score at a 65 point per game clip. That's obviously not the dominance we've seen from the Americans.
The point spread is interesting because if we take the averages of both teams and put them together, we get 163 points, which is a total of nine points HIGHER than the projected total by the oddsmakers. In other words, the game probably isn't going to favor the American's style and will presumably be slowed down by the clunky Australian team that is trying to stay in the contest at any cost. It very well could be a big struggle for the United States to get to their average in this game based on how the Australians will have to play.
Free Pick: We're still going to lay the points with the Americans in this contest if only for the sheer dominance they've shown so far in the Olympics. They've won be a collective average of nearly 38 points per game and if they were to do that again in today's game, it'd be something really special. We don't think they'll win by 40 but we'll take half of that and say they at least cover their 22 points.
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