Olympics Game Thread: Team USA vs France

Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports USA (-12) vs France

7:00am CST

NBC Sports

Team USA kicks off the Preliminary Round against a very, very good France squad in Japan. Especially given how poorly USA played in their exhibition games, it is not a given that they’ll win this one by any means.

I’m surprised to see the point spread as high as it is, but the reality is that Team USA has an alarming advantage in terms of talent compared to the field, it’s just a matter of playing their best basketball, as most other teams are well-oiled machines.

As far as NBA talent goes, France is led by Rudy Gobert, but also features Frank Ntilikina, Timothe Luwawu-Kongbo, Nic Batum, Guerschon Yabusele, Evan Fournier,…