USA vs Australia
July 12, 2021 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: USA -17 -- Over/Under: 187
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Team USA and Australia meet Monday night in a mens basketball International Friendly exhibition match in Michelob Ultra Arena.
Team USA should be eager for a bounce back showing after losing to Nigeria as near 30-point favorites. It was just the third time USA has lost an exhibition game. In the losing effort, Kevin Durant led the Americans with 17 points and four assists while Jayson Tatum had 15 points and seven rebounds. Damian Lillard was the third double-digit scorer and Bam Adebayo grabbed five rebounds. USA shot 41.3 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from deep. Team USA is the overwhelming favorite to win gold, but their opening performance doesn’t provide a great deal of confidence. It’s still meaningless exhibition games overall, but it would bode well for USA to get its act together before the olympics. There’s a little bit of pressure on the United States to bounce back here in a big way.
Australia is in a feel good spot after completing a big second half comeback against Argentina and winning the game on a last second shot. It was Patty Mills who nailed the buzzer beater and the Aussies have now won three straight games going back to qualifying for the Asia Cup. Mills finished the game with 17 points and Joe Ingles chipped in 16 points. Matisse Thybulle also helped Australia with an impressive 15 points, three blocks and four steals. Australia has a lot of promising players on its roster and is a team that doesn’t get a lot of national love, but there’s potential here. However, this game will be a measuring stick game for the Aussies.
USA is 8-1 all-time against Australia, and that lone loss came in a 2019 friendly international match.
Australia is a rather talented team with legit NBA players and their roster is certainly better than Nigeria. On the surface, Australia and the points is rather attractive. However, there’s a potential letdown here with the way the Aussies won their last game. USA should also have a bad taste in its mouth and should come out with its hair on fire. Meaningless scrimmage or not, losing to Nigeria was embarrasing with all due respect.
I’ll lay the chalk with Team USA.
