USA vs Iran
July 28, 2021 12:40 am EDT
The Line: USA -41.5
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USA and Iran meet Wednesday morning in the 2020 Olympics in a basketball meeting at the Saitama Super Arena. USA is coming off a big time upset in its opener against France. Iran also lost its opener in a six-point loss to Czech Republic.
USA continues the shaky play and has now lost three of its last five games when you factor in exhibitions. In the losing effort, USA shot 36.2 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from three. Jrue Holiday led USA with 18 points and four assists while Bam Adebayo had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Damian Lillard was the third double-digit scorer and Kevin Durant grabbed two rebounds. Defensively, USA allowed 46.8 percent shooting from the field and 29.6 percent shooting from three. The United States simply look like a team that lacks chemistry and no creativity on the offensive side. It’s a lot of iso ball and standing around. USA better figure things out quickly or this will be the most disappointing Olympics ever for the Americans.
Iran may have lost its opener, but it outscored its opponent by 15 points in the fourth quarter to gain some momentum heading into this spot. In the losing effort, Iran shot 50 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from three. Behnam Yakhchalide Hkordi led Iran with 23 points and four assists while Mohammad Jamshidi had 16 points and one rebound. Hamed Haddadi was the third double-digit scorer and Mohammadsamad Nik Khahbahrami grabbed six rebounds. Defensively, Iran allowed 44.6 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent shooting from three. Iran fought back in the second half, which is a positive sign and gives you hope for this team moving forward. Iran also shot 50 percent from the field, something that gives them a punchers chance most nights.
USA beat Iran in the only previous meeting, which came in the 2010 World Cup. USA won the contest by 37 points.
Team USA should be favored, should win by a lot and we shouldn’t have to think much about this contest. However, at some point the Americans have to show us something. We have a large enough sample size now to be concerned about the US and I’m not laying these sort of numbers when they have trouble simply getting in the win column.
It’s Iran and the free buckets or pass.
