Welcome back to Newswire here on SPORTS GRID.
Olympic Games getting ready to wrap up.
We're seeing some of the stars shine,
that includes Noah Lyles. We're going to have another chance
to see him and also talk some USA Basketball.
Jacob Cammaker is back with us here on Newswire from
Sporting News.
They've been covering the Olympic Games along with us.
Jacob, thanks again for coming on the show.
No problem, Craig. Glad to be here.
All right, so let's dive into it.
Noah Lyles is like Katie Ledecky.
There's a there's a handful of Simone Biles.
There's a handful of stars
that we've seen come out of this that I think
are going to be really taking this to the next
level as far as getting paid for their work after
the Olympics. The next round for Lyles is to win
the gold in the
men's 200m race. And if he doesn't win,
it would probably be the biggest shock of the Olympics
because it's very rare to see a favorite like this.
And Laos has just been so good.
Jacob, he's -390 here. So I,
I, I guess I'm not going to ask you if
he's going to win or not.
And I'm not going to ask you about this dude
from Botswana
who is going to win because you and I both
know that this is you and me Googling to see
who's going to win this thing outside of NOAA.
But what has he meant so far to Team USAI?
Think that's probably a better question to ask you.
He's been huge for Team USA.
I mean, the United States hadn't won the 100 meter
dash and quite some time before he was able to
do it.
And he did in an epic fashion,
really. It was him and the Jamaican runner he was
going against really right down to the wire.
And he won by 5 thousandths of a second over
to Shane Thompson.
And it was just really a moment that a lot
of Americans could celebrate.
Team USA fans finally got to see Noah Lyles live
up to the hype that he's kind of created for
himself as well,
because he pretty much said that he was going to
remember Thompson and some other runners beating him at times.
I think oblique, the another Jamaican runner had a chance
to beat him in the earlier rounds and he's just
performed very well throughout.
And now the 200 meter event,
he's called his baby and as you mentioned,
he's heavily favored to win this thing.
If he can do that,
he's going to be the first American man to pull
off the so-called double to win the
100m and 200m dashes since Carl Lewis in
1984. So that's 40 years of history that we could
be watching in the making right here.
So it's going to be exciting to watch him either
way,
even with him very much favored to win this event.
Yeah. What what are the names that's going to come
out of this as one of the winners of the
USA Olympic Games from a popularity standpoint and also capturing
a lot of gold medals,
too. OK, so Team USA takes on Serbia.
I thought, Jacob, from watching their last game,
it was their best performance of the Olympics.
You and I both know that this is,
you know, for us here on SPORTS GRID somewhat more
about the point spread that it is about wins and
losses.
And let's just be honest,
Team USA was not covering any games and the warmups,
the group stage now we're at the point where
covering is going to be important because again,
they want to win and they want to dominate.
They take on a very good Serbia team,
16 1/2 point favorites, led by one player and one
player only.
You see him there, We all know him,
former MVP of the NBA,
Nicola Yokich. All right, Jacob,
you're on the line here.
Do they win? Do they cover
what's the final score? I need an exact No,
I'm just kidding. I'm not going to need an exact
score.
But what do you think happens today?
I do think the United States are going to win.
I I mean, we've seen them play Serbia twice now
recently,
and they've dominated both times.
Maybe not in the first half.
It's been close at times.
Nikola Jokic keeps Serbia kind of in it,
kind of within striking distance.
But Team USA was able to pull away in both
of their previous meetings.
And they're getting better as this tournament goes along.
They're developing more chemistry. They're finding the match that they
really need to take advantage in this spot.
And I know the first time they played Serbia,
Joel Embiid didn't have his greatest game.
And Nikola Yokich was kind of able to beat him
on this world stage because Embiid just,
yeah, I don't think is as familiar with the international
version of basketball as the NBA style.
So Yokich had the advantage there.
But I think if Steve Kerr is willing to use
Anthony Davis and Bam out of bio more in this
game,
I think the United States can cover this one too.
Like I said earlier, it might be a one where
in the first half you're like
Serbia's hanging in this. It's kind of within striking distance.
Yokich is looking good, but LeBron James has been dominating
as the point forward type,
setting up his teammates. Devin Booker started really hitting triples
last game against Brazil.
I think if they can get some hot shooting out
of him and Steph Curry can't stay this cold.
He's 5 of 20 on threes.
He can't stay this cold forever,
right? So I think if they have a good game
from beyond the arc,
I think they can take down Serbia and win by
about 20 points.
Cover. All right, there you go.
20 points is the margin of victory for Team USA.
Says Jacob Kamiker will clip this,
save it. And if it wins,
we post it. If not,
we just forget it. I'm just kidding,
All right, Nicoli Yokich, he is the favorite to be
the top point scorer.
Plus 140. Bogdan Bogdanovic at
+400. LeBron 7 to one.
Duran has played well. He's 7 1/2 to one.
And then everybody else has a long shot here.
If you don't take Yokich to be the top point
scorer,
Jacob today, who else would it be?
I would strongly consider Kevin Durant at
750 + 750 odds. I mean,
that looks good to me.
We know that Kevin Durant is the most prolific Team
USA scorer in history.
He just passed Lisa Leslie for that mark at the
Olympics.
So I think if you're looking for a guy who
can just fill up the basket and when he's hot,
he's hot. I think earlier in the tournament he had
a half where he scored
25 or 27 points on 9:50 shooting with some free
throws mixed in.
So I think if you're not taking Jokic there,
go with Durant and just say,
hey, if he's if he's hot out of the gate,
Team USA will ride him.
I think any issue with taking an American player is
if this turns into a blowout,
all the scores are going to be well-rounded.
And you know, they're not going to take Nikola Jokic
out for Serbia in a blowout because there's certain amount
of pride on the line.
But KD at those odds,
that intrigues me at least enough to consider that.
All right. And finally, we've got the big soccer match
for the
women's team. Team USA, their favorites against Brazil,
minus one O 5 today.
Jacob on the money line,
a tie is plus 230.
Does Team USA beat Brazil today to move on,
or does Brazil pull off the upset?
I think this game might be a little tougher for
the United States than people think because Brazil is going
to be motivated in this one,
this gold medal match. It's going to be
Marta's last game, and she's been
a really historic player for Brazil,
their best women's player of all time.
Yeah, over 200 appearances. So they're going out a lot
on the line looking to beat the
US women's national team. But I think the US team's
defense with Naomi
Germa and with Alyssa Nair and net,
they might be able to slow down Brazil enough.
It's all about whether they could score,
though. If the United States can score,
they should win this one.
Great stuff, Jacob, as always,
Thanks for coming on a couple times this week.
We'll catch up again soon.
Sounds good. Thanks, Craig.