It's all fun and games til somebody gets 60-pieced
No big deal, just one of the largest spreads in sports history. Those taking the under on this would point out that the US will likely have the game on ice by the second quarter, allowing Coach K the opportunity to rest his big dogs (LeBron, Kobe, Durant, Carmelo), and thereby giving a glimmer of hope to Tunisia to keep it closer to a more "respectable" 40 point margin. Only problem with that rationale is that the second unit consists of ball hawking beasts Andre Iguodala, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. The relentless ball pressure of the Americans will overwhelm the already shaky Tunisian guards (21 turnovers in their opening loss to Nigeria) no matter who is in the game, and Team USA will utilize their likely copious number of steals to ignite merciless fast break after fast break on their helpless North African opponents. Expect the increasingly productive Kevin Love (14 pts each in the final exhibition vs Spain and Sunday's opener vs France, in limited minutes) and Anthony Davis to get big minutes tonight as well. Every time Davis has entered a game this summer, he has immediately made an impact simply by concentrating on the fundamentals: running the floor, protecting the rim, and finishing around the hoop. Just over a year removed from high school, kid already looks like he belongs with the NBA Elite. Davis is not content to reprise Christian Laettner's role of '92 whipping boy, he is quite capable of being a valued contributor. As for tonight, let's look do a quick ocular assessment to see how justifiable this titanic spread really is:
Vs
Apparently the Tunisians have some swag! The 2011 African champs have decent size as well, with seven players over 6'8". However, the Tunisians also have zero players with anything close to resembling NBA experience and lost 60-56 in their opener to the Nigerians, who were subsequently trounced by Lithuania. Sorry Tunisia, you're about to get mollywhopped, thanks for stopping by. I'll take the over.
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