France vs. Serbia Betting Preview
Where: Carioca Arena 1 — Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
When: Wednesday, August 10, 2016, 1:15 PM EST
Line: France (-1) vs. Serbia (+1); total: 158.0 – view all men’s Olympic basketball lines
TV Broadcast: NBCSN / NBCOlympics.com
Writer’s Pick: France (-1)
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Offensive Edge – France (-1)
An opening loss to Australia seems to have woken up France’s true strength. Les Bleus made an example out of a desperate Chinese team, beating them in dominant fashion, 88-60, on Monday night. Taking most of the individual glory was their floor general in Tony Parker, who scored 14 points along with a game-high of eight assists. And not to be outdone was of course Nando de Colo, the reigning Euroleague MVP. He led France in scoring with 19 points, eight of which came from the charity stripe.Parker and de Colo are undoubtedly one of the best backcourt duos in the tournament right now. Both, needless to say, better keep it going as they face a more challenging assignment in the form of Serbia, which also boasts a number of capable offensive weapons in Miroslav Raduljica, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Milos Teodisic.
Defensive Edge – France (-1)
France and Serbia are pretty evenly matched on defense, but the former slightly has the advantage down low with center Rudy Gobert. He’s been doing what he does best, which is to crash the glass send every opponent’s shot attempt to oblivion, during the French’s first two games. In that brief stretch, the Utah Jazz big man is averaging 7.5 rebounds and 4.0 blocks while also pitching in around eight points per contest.
Gobert’s presence alone should force Orlovi to rely mostly on drive-and-kick plays and some outside shooting. That should work well for Gobert and co. as long as their opponent for today continues to shoot blanks. Serbia shot below 40 percent from the field— and 22.7 percent from down town—in its 15-point loss to the Aussies last Monday.
Writer’s Prediction: France (-1) pulls through down the stretch, 71-66.
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