The Redeem Team comprehensively beat the Australian Boomers in Beijing last night, but it was close in the first half. Down by just a single point after the first quarter, and unlucky to trail by twelve at half-time, the Aussies really took it to the gold medal favorites in the first half of the match.

With six seconds left in the half, the Australians had managed to stay within striking distance of the Americans and Aussie Mark Worthington lined up from the 3-point line and let a shot fly. Had it gone in, it would have been a six-point game at the half. But it was short and Utah Jazz guard Deron Williams managed to get the ball upcourt for a swished 3 point shot to extend the lead to 12.

The Americans late first half run continued into a confident third quarter, and they opened up a lead that was never again threatened.

But our prediction of the Aussies covering the spread in a high scoring game turned out to be correct, with the over/under of 178 being blown out of the water and the +32 point spread just scraping in with a 31 point winning margin.

Although we would have liked it to be closer, with an injured Bogut on the sidelines and their shooters going cold, we were proud of the Australians putting in enough of an effort to win us some money!

Next up the Americans will face the Athens gold medalists Argentina and NBA sixth man of the year Manu Ginobili. The Argentinians just scraped past the Greeks, 80-78 to setup the Semi Final matchup. In the other Semi Final it will be Lithuania against Spain.

At BetUS, the USA is -18 point favorites in the Semi Final, with the over/under set at 183.5. The Argentinians will try to slow down the play so we’re not comfy betting on the over/under in this one. But with a score to settle you can bet that Kobe Bryant will make sure that 18 point spread is blown away. You can bet on the Redeem Team to cover the spread in this one and advance to the gold medal game.