Simon Dalton presents his prediction for the 2024 Olympics basketball match.
Canada
Canada made a smart trade-off with the Greeks: they let Antetokounmpo score as much as he wanted, but tightly defended the rest of the team. As a result, besides Giannis, only Kostas Papanikolaou managed to score more than 10 points. The Canadians did well in balanced defensive basketball and allowed their opponent to make only 39% of shots.
Australia
Australia scored 92 points in a game with Spain. This is the first time in the past five years when they got more than 90 points. This is partly due to easy second-chance points. The Australians grabbed 46 rebounds - their second-best performance in the last 40 years. It will be much harder to play against the big Canadians.
Canada - Australia Prediction
This game is very important for the tournament - the winner gets out of the drop zone, so every possession counts. Also, we should consider the referee factor. In the last game, Canada and Greece each received over 30 shooting fouls. The last time this happened was over 10 years ago.
