By Only Players Staff
Updated 7/29/24 3:26am ET
After avoiding an upset in its opener, Canada faces another opponent with upset potential. The roster features 11 NBA players but face a country that won the bronze medal in the last Olympics.
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Automated transcript is below. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.ย
Will we see an upset of Team Canada? I think it’s in the cards. The Canadians are relatively short favorites, all things considered, and they’re facing a team that is more than capable of beating them. So the point spread for Canada and Australia, Canada minus six and a half, the over-under, 178. So what did we learn from the first games? Well, remember Canada with 11 NBA players is kind of like Team USA JV unit.
They play an NBA flavor, very NBA heavy with a couple of all -stars and Shea Gilder’s Alexander Jamal Murray and some other guys that you certainly know like Lou Dort, excellent defender. But they run into problems that previous USA teams have and maybe even this version in that the international game is so different and there’s an adjustment period and other teams, while not as talented on paper, can certainly play more effectively. And I think that’s what we have here with Australia. I’ll grab the six and a half points.
Because Australia has great chemistry, some legit shooting. And remember, it’s Patty Mills, the FIBA version of Patty Mills. So he’s not going to miss. But they have plenty of other guys who aren’t on the, at the end of their careers and they have enough size to handle Canada. The bigs of Canada are not super, you know, talented, Powell that doesn’t even play for the Mavs. And there’s limitations with Canadians, big men, Kelly Olynyk. So I think Australia plus six and I would have made this line four.
So I think there’s an edge here. So I like the points. I think it’s going to be very well played. Australia won and covered its first round game. But there was some mental mistakes down the stretch. I expect more from them. But I think we’re going to have a really sharp, well played game from the Australians.
