Nigeria enters uncharted territory when it meets the US on Wednesday within the ladies’s basketball quarterfinals on the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Nigerians are the primary African basketball crew, male or feminine, to succeed in the quarterfinals within the historical past of the Summer time Video games. Nigeria earned the excellence by defeating Canada 79-70 in its ultimate group-stage sport. Crew USA, which is looking for its eighth consecutive gold medal and driving a 58-game profitable streak within the Olympics, beat Japan, Belgium and Germany by a median of 19.3 factors throughout group play.
Tipoff at Accor Area is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET. The Individuals are 27.5-point favorites within the newest USA vs. Nigeria odds, whereas the over/beneath for whole factors is 155.5. Earlier than making any Nigeria vs. USA picks or 2024 Paris Olympics ladies’s basketball predictions, it’s good to see what SportsLine’s Calvin Wetzel has to say.
Wetzel, HerHoopStats.com’s lead betting author, incorporates his mathematical background and robust information of girls’s hoops to show the positioning’s prediction mannequin into picks. After teaming up with Aaron Barzilai, a Ph.D. from Stanford, Wetzel is an unbelievable 1,385-988 (+372.33 items) on ladies’s school basketball picks because the begin of the 2021-22 season. He is additionally coming off an awesome 2023 season with a 238-185-1 total file that featured a return on funding of practically 7%. Anybody following him has seen enormous returns.
Now, Wetzel has damaged down USA vs. Nigeria from each angle and simply revealed his picks and predictions. You’ll be able to go to SportsLine now to see his picks. Listed below are the strains and developments for Nigeria vs. USA:
- USA vs. Nigeria unfold: USA -27.5
- USA vs. Nigeria over/beneath: 155.5 factors
- USA vs. Nigeria: -50000, Nigeria +3500
- Crew USA: The Individuals are 75-3 all-time within the Summer time Olympics
- Nigeria: The Nigerians went a mixed 1-8 of their first two Olympic appearances
- USA vs. Nigeria picks: See picks at SportsLine
Why Crew USA can cowl
Of their lone earlier assembly within the Summer time Video games, Crew USA defeated Nigeria by 9 factors within the group stage at Tokyo in 2020 — certainly one of solely two contests through the Individuals’ present Olympic profitable streak that wasn’t a double-digit victory. Nevertheless, they trounced the Nigerians 100-46 throughout Olympic Qualifying in Belgium this previous February behind a 68-point effort from their bench, with Jewell Loyd main the cost with a game-high 18 on 7-of-11 taking pictures.
The U.S., which hasn’t misplaced in Olympic play since dropping a 79-73 choice to the Unified Crew within the semifinals of the 1992 Barcelona Video games, has been led on this match by middle A’ja Wilson and ahead Breanna Stewart. The 27-year-old Wilson is averaging 20.3 factors and started group play with back-to-back double-doubles, recording 24 factors and 13 rebounds towards Japan earlier than notching 23 and 13, respectively, versus Belgium. Stewart additionally has produced 20.3 factors per contest and led Crew USA with 26 towards the Belgians, whereas Jackie Younger scored a game-high 19 within the win over Germany. See the picks at SportsLine.
Why Nigeria can cowl
Getting into the Paris Olympics, African ladies’s groups owned a mixed 1-37 file within the Summer time Video games, with Nigeria’s 68-64 conquer South Korea within the Eleventh-place sport in Athens in 2004 being the lone victory. The Nigerians doubled that whole through the group stage of the Paris Video games, beating Australia 75-62 of their opener earlier than topping Canada of their finale. Ezinne Kalu led all gamers with 21 factors towards the Canadians whereas Nigeria recorded 16 steals and scored 27 factors off turnovers.
A 32-year-old guard who was born and raised in New Jersey, Kalu is averaging 19.3 factors within the Paris Olympics. She was not within the lineup towards the US in February, however Nigeria obtained a strong effort in that contest from Murjanatu Musa, who scored a team-high 13 factors. The 24-year-old ahead averaged 10.7 factors throughout group play in these Summer time Video games, scoring 11 whereas grabbing seven rebounds towards Australia earlier than registering 14 and 9 versus France. Promise Amukamara, additionally a New Jersey native whose brother Prince was a Tremendous Bowl champion cornerback with the New York Giants, scored in double figures in two of Nigeria’s three group-stage video games. See the picks at SportsLine.
How you can make United States vs. Nigeria picks
Wetzel has analyzed Nigeria vs. Crew USA from each angle, and he is leaning Underneath on the purpose whole. He has additionally discovered a essential X-factor that has him leaping throughout one facet of the unfold. He is sharing what it’s, and which facet to again, solely at SportsLine.
So who wins Crew USA vs. Nigeria within the quarterfinals of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and what essential X-factor makes one facet of the unfold a must-back? Go to SportsLine now to see which facet of the Nigeria vs. Crew USA unfold to leap on, all from the knowledgeable with a historical past of crushing his ladies’s basketball picks, and discover out.