United States vs. Japan Olympic Women’s Basketball Picks, Odds, Predictions 7/30/21`

The United States and Japan face off on Thursday night in a women’s Olympic basketball showdown. This is the second game for both the United States and Japan.

The United States opened up the Olympics against Nigeria and that was a lot closer than the United States wanted it to be. The United States scored 81 points in that game while the defense gave up 72 points, and that led to the nine-point victory. A’ja Wilson was the best player in the first game for the United States, finishing with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Brittney Griner also had a big game finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds. One issue in the first game for Nigeria was their shooting from deep hitting five of their 20 shots. This is a team that has a lot of prolific scorers, and they need to get more production from behind the three-point line. The higher scoring this game is, the better the chance, the USA is going to come away with the victory. 

On the other side of this matchup is Japan, who played their first game against France and they were able to come away with the 74-70 victory. Japan used a very balanced attack with their offense with three players putting up at least 10 points. Japan only shot 38.7 percent from the field but shot over 40 percent from behind the three-point line, and in this game, if they want to come away with the victory. It’s going to need to be the three-point shooting that is good to get the job done. 

The United States is the better team, but I expect Japan is going to keep this game close. Look for Japan to continue to hit shots from deep in this game, and that will lead to Japan covering this spread.