Durant Will Torch South Sudan For Team USA

South Sudan vs. Team USA, 3:00 ET

Basketball at the Olympics has only provided me with one play that I've liked so far for the games. It was taking Team Canada against Team Greece at -7. The game was the other day and went pretty much how I expected it to go. Canada was better, but Greece was able to remain competitive. Unfortunately for us, we didn't get a win, but we did get a push which isn't something to complain about. Now we are headed back to the hardwood and will put a play on a game with another one of the Gold Medal hopefuls as Team USA takes on South Sudan. 

We know that Team USA will win this game, but we should give a bit of respect to South Sudan. If you weren't aware, this team did play Team USA earlier in the showcase stage - meaning it really wasn't more than a warmup game. I suppose if you're Team USA you just want to get through the game without injury or anything, but it would look really bad if you lost. South Sudan took them as close to a loss as anyone has. South Sudan ultimately lost the game 101-100. They did have a chance to win the game, but took a poor shot at the end and couldn't get a putback to fall in the last-second scramble. If you look at the box score, a few things stand out to me - first that South Sudan won three of the four quarters in the game, and second was that South Sudan had four players in double figures with another three scoring at least seven points. They had a fairly balanced attack and Carlik Jones put up a triple-double with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. Marial Shayok led the team in scoring and was 6-12 from deep. I highly doubt that South Sudan will be able to get the same level of production from both players. Overall, the team shot fairly well, going 46% from the floor overall, and 10-28 from deep.

While South Sudan should come into this game with a bit of confidence knowing that they've been able to hang with Team USA for a full game in the past, I expect the Americans to come in there and establish early that last game was a fluke. I mentioned that last game South Sudan won three quarters of the game. In the one losing quarter, South Sudan was outscored by 19 points. That was the third quarter and it seemed like Team USA decided to turn it on and play tough in that one quarter to capture a lead and show that they weren't messing around. They failed a bit in the fourth quarter as they lost by five in that frame, but they still pulled out the victory as LeBron James drove to the lane for a layup and sealed the win. In the first matchup for the Americans in Paris, they were able to beat the Nikola Jokic-led Serbians. One interesting note about that game is that when Jokic was on the floor the team was essentially even with Team USA. When he was off the floor is when Team USA did most of the damage. There is no Jokic on this South Sudan team. 

The game is interesting to me for another angle - Jayson Tatum didn't see the floor at all in the game against Serbia. I'm sure that will change here as they take on South Sudan, but that means less minutes for others. The team also didn't have Kevin Durant in the first matchup against South Sudan. In his return to USA Basketball, he scored 21 points in the first half on 8 of 8 shooting. I don't see anyone stopping him in this game either and think he will coast over the 14.5 points in this game. As far as a side or total play, I think Team USA tries to beat down South Sudan, but 30 points is still a lot to cover even with the best in the world. I think the best way to play this is the player prop on Durant. I do lean toward Team USA -16.5 in the first half because I think they try to beat down South Sudan right away and not give them any hope. 

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