Serbia and Canada face off on Monday in a women’s basketball showdown in the 2020 Olympics. This is Serbia and Canada’s first game in the Olympics. Serbia and Canada are competing in Group A.
Serbia looks like the team to beat in Group 1, and it’s for very good reason with how they looked last month. Serbia won the EuroBasket Championship last month against France. In that game, Serbia gave up only 54 points and that led to the nine-point victory. The best players for Serbia coming into this tournament are Sonja Vasic and Yvonne Anderson. They are both strong offensive players. Jelena Brooks is also a sharpshooter from deep who will be leaned on heavily to get the job done. In this game for Serbia, it’s going to be about the defense stepping up early, and making life tough on the Canadian offense.
On the other side of this matchup is Canada who is led by Natalie Achonwa but she isn’t 100 percent and there are some serious concerns about how effective she will be. If she isn’t 100 percent, this team could be in a lot of trouble. Kia Nurse is another key player, who is going to be leaned on heavily to have success. One other big issue for this team is they don’t really have a true point guard, and late in the games, who this team turns to could be a big issue. This is a team that can be successful, but they need to treat this like a must-win game.
There are so many questions surrounding this Canadien team, and I am not willing to take the chance on them. I expect Serbia’s defense is going to lockdown, and that will lead to Serbia covering the spread.