Team USA is a huge favourite over France in the gold-medal game and I expect its most decorated player to shine.
The pregame narrative: LeBron James is on the cusp of a third gold medal. He's led the United States in assists this tournament and is a good bet to clear his total on Saturday. I'm also fading Bam Adebayo's rebound total.
Check out our USA vs. France props for the Olympic men's basketball gold medal game on Aug. 10.
USA vs. France props
Click linked odds to add selection to your betslip. Note: Lines have changed/market no longer available if grey.
| USA vs. France props | Odds | Bet now ⬇️ |
| James over 8.5 assists | -112 | Add to betslip |
| Adebayo under 4.5 rebounds | -143 | Add to betslip |
Go to full USA/France betting markets
Best Bet: James over 8.5 assists (-112)
LeBron is still the gold standard, even at 39 years old.
The veteran put up a 16-point triple-double to help the United States escape disaster against Serbia in the semifinal. He played a team-high 32 minutes and was instrumental in engineering the team's 13-point fourth-quarter comeback.
In the quarterfinals, LeBron also cleared this line with nine assists agianst Brazil. And that was in a blowout where he played just 17 minutes.
France has the home crowd at its back and some supremely talented players. I expect this game to be closer than the 17-point spread indicates.
That means the King should be playing closer to 30 minutes than 20 and that means he'll have plenty of opportunities to dish out helpers to his all-star studded cast.
LeBron is tied with Nikola Jokic for the most assists per game this tournament (8.2). He's cleared this mark in three of five games and is primed to do that again.
Key stat: LeBron's 8.3 assists per game was the fourth-best mark in the NBA last year.
Other picks
Adebayo under 4.5 rebounds (-143): You're going to have to pay some juice on this line but I believe this is worth it.
Adebayo is a solid player but there are simply too many cooks in Steve Kerr's kitchen.
Anthony Davis has been having a fantastic tournament defensively and Joel Embiid just had a monster game to close out Serbia. Getting those two minutes should be Kerr's priority and that leaves Adebayo as the odd man out.
The Miami Heat centre played 10 minutes in the semifinal and logged just one counting stat (an assist) in his cardio game.
Picks made at 3:00 p.m. ET on 08/09/2024.
