Team USA women’s basketball opened play at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with an 81-72 win over Nigeria in a game that was closer than oddsmakers expected. William Hill Sportsbook listed Team USA as a 29.5-point favorite in that game, and the Americans will look to pick up another win and perhaps put together a cleaner performance early Friday morning. The Americans take on Japan in their second game of Group B action. Japan won its opener 74-70 against France.
Tip-off is set for 12:40 a.m. ET. Team USA is a 19.5-point favorite in the latest USA vs. Japan odds from William Hill, while the over-under for total points is set at 162. Before locking in any Japan vs. USA women’s basketball picks or predictions, you need to see what SportsLine’s Olympics expert, Mike Tierney, has to say.
A national sportswriter whose work appears in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Tierney has covered nine Olympic Games in person. At Rio in 2016, Tierney profited big-time. He told readers to bet over on Team USA’s gold medal count (41.5) and over on Team USA’s overall medal count (102.5). The result? 46 golds, 121 medals and two easy cashes.
And for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Tierney hit two of his three predictions: Germany (+200) to win the most gold medals and the United States winning under 10.5 gold medals (+110).
Now, with the Tokyo Summer Olympics rolling on, Tierney has analyzed every…
