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00:00The opening weekend of Paris Olympic action into the first
00:06four weeks of action at the Olympiad over in France. Jacob
00:11Kamenker from Sporting News joins us live right here on
00:14this Monday morning for his Olympic assessment. We hit on
00:18everything Jacob and that is your expertise from the
00:21basketball hardwood both in the men's and women's game. We'll
00:24talk some gymnastics and Simone Biles despite being injured
00:28during warm-ups getting out there on the floor once again
00:32over in Paris. Plenty to break down. We appreciate your time
00:36to start off this new week. Thanks for having me guys.
00:39Happy to be here. We are glad to have you here of course and
00:44we start with Team USA in its hopes of winning a fifth
00:48consecutive men's basketball gold medal. A shaky exhibition
00:53series that did feature a matchup against Serbia that was
00:57the Americans' best performance and in the Olympic
01:00opener yesterday, another dominant performance over
01:03Nikola Jokic and Serbia. 110-84. Team USA Jacob
01:09covering is a 13 and a half point favorite. A total of 185
01:13and a hook does sky over. Led by LeBron James and Kevin Durant
01:18in his first action this summer with Team USA. The Americans
01:22make a statement in their Olympic opener. What did it say
01:26to you about Team USA in its hunt for a fifth straight gold
01:29medal? I think it just goes to show the depth of this team. I
01:34mean we talk about this every year just how deep the quality
01:37of the US rosters are but I think specifically this year
01:41we have LeBron James back in action. You have Kevin Durant
01:43there. You have Steph Curry there. You have all the star
01:46players from United States pretty much in this tournament
01:50and we saw early in the game the first half it was a little
01:53shaky. They were figuring out their rotations a bit. I thought
01:56Joel Embiid struggled a bit. He only ended up playing 11
01:59minutes. So I think Steve Kerr is still trying to figure out
02:02the best way to utilize these guys and you know Jason Tatum
02:06didn't even play and Kerr after the game said he felt like an
02:09idiot not playing him but that's just how great this team
02:12is. You can sit Jason Tatum and be fine. So I think you're
02:16going to see him continue to mix and match. Try to figure out
02:18the best matchups and you know maybe don't put Embiid in a
02:22game where you might have to guard a guy like Jokic maybe
02:24not at least in long stretches. So I think it was good to see
02:27them kind of learn in the first half and then in the second
02:30half pull away. I think if you're a United States
02:32basketball fan, you're feeling pretty good about that. No doubt
02:36about it and also taking a look at the superstars on this team
02:39in one LeBron James 27 minutes 9 of 13 from the field 21 points
02:43strips in with seven rebounds and nine assists. I can't say
02:46like Jacob we're not surprised by this year but it looks like
02:49that true alpha dog on Team USA is LeBron James. Yeah, he still
02:55seems to be that guy and he seems to want to run things
02:58through him and Team USA I think realizes that LeBron's
03:02experience and his ability to operate both as a forward, a
03:06scorer, a slasher, and a distributor as a point forward
03:10type is invaluable to this team because LeBron just has such a
03:13high basketball IQ 20 plus years of experience at this
03:17point and so much on the Olympic stage that they know
03:20if they run things through him, things are probably going to go
03:23pretty smoothly. The right guy is going to get the ball. The
03:25right guy is going to get an open shot. They're going to be
03:27good in transition if he has the ball in his hands. So I know
03:30there will be some LeBron haters out there who say, oh,
03:33he's hogging the ball too much. He's trying to do too much by
03:36himself. No, if just this team works best when he is the one
03:40making the decisions and being that floor general. So I expect
03:43that to continue and I expect him to continue to post solid,
03:46well-rounded stat lines like you mentioned. Jacob Donnie
03:50wants to be a LeBron hater but can't even do it. LeBron nearly
03:55post a triple double in the Olympic opener. The Americans
03:59Jacob have been a heavy favorite to win a fifth
04:01consecutive gold medal at the Olympic Games since these odds
04:04became available but it was only minus 400 after the five
04:09game exhibition series that led to a couple of questions
04:12perhaps about the US after their Olympic opener in the
04:16impressive victory over Serbia. Now minus 550. Canada a win
04:21over Giannis and the Greeks. They have the second best price
04:25at plus 850. We saw four games of action on Saturday at the
04:30Olympics. Victor Wembenyama and the host nation France. A
04:33victory over Brazil. Germany hammered Japan. The Australians
04:38a double digit win over Spain and then yesterday the other
04:41two teams in group C along with team USA and Serbia. South
04:46Sudan a big victory over Puerto Rico. Jacob what is your
04:49overall assessment of the Olympic field in men's
04:52basketball? I think the field is getting stronger and stronger
04:57by the year. You're seeing more teams that can at least keep
04:59pace and keep games with the United States competitive. As
05:03much as that game that they just played against Serbia was
05:06you know a big win for them and they dominated in the second
05:09half. There were years when they would have won that game by
05:12halftime but the presence of a guy like Nikola Jokic and just
05:15the rising level of basketball talent in the country is going
05:18to make it harder for the US to just put the hammer down every
05:21single game. And you look at teams like Canada and like
05:24France where they have established NBA stars on that
05:26those teams. I mean Canada has Jay Gilgis Alexander a
05:30legitimate MVP candidate last year. The French have Victor
05:33Wembenyama and Rudy Gobert who if they could figure out how to
05:37implement those two and play great defense near the basket.
05:40All of a sudden you're asking teams to make a lot of
05:42perimeter shots which Team USA can absolutely do. But these
05:46two squads those two squads look like they could
05:49legitimately challenge the United States at some point. I
05:52think the United States has to be viewed as a favorite as long
05:55as they have this depth of talent. But the gap is
05:58definitely closing and I think that's a great sign for just the
06:01game of basketball on the international stage. And as
06:04we've seen in recent years the parity growing within the NBA.
06:06It's great for the sport. Team USA on the men's side looking
06:11for gold. Same thing could be said about the women who also
06:14open up here taking on Japan today at 3 p.m. Eastern. A heavy
06:17favorite at minus 22 and a half here at the Fandula Sportsbook
06:20and a total of 160 and a half. We saw Team USA play their
06:25exhibition round technically against the WNBA All-Stars and
06:28lost that. Maybe a chance to gel as a team moving forward. What
06:32are the expectations in this game against Japan and also
06:34moving forward for you Jacob with Team USA from the women's
06:37perspective. My expectations in this game against Japan is
06:42that they're going to come out and I kind of think they're
06:44going to be ready to punch their opponents in the mouth a
06:46little bit. I think that WNBA All-Star game was sort of a
06:50situation where the WNBA All-Stars had a lot of people
06:54who are viewed maybe not as snubs for the Olympic team
06:56because there are just so many good players that could have
06:58made that team. But you know they're a little myth that they
07:01weren't on there. You have Kayla Clark and Angel Reese on
07:03that team. Both of them could have gotten consideration for a
07:06roster spot. Didn't make it. So I think the motivation was
07:09there for the WNBA All-Stars and less so for the US
07:12basketball and just an exhibition. But I think you
07:16have so many veterans on this team from Diana Tarassi to
07:19Brianna Stewart. Like all of these players are going to come
07:23together and they just have such a size advantage over other
07:25countries. I mean you have Brittany Greiner and Asia
07:28Wilson who's the best player out there right now and you can
07:31just throw them at opponents. Good luck trying to defend that
07:34on the Olympic stage. So I think the USA women are going
07:37to have maybe an easier time racking up these big wins than
07:41the men and they could have some big blowouts on the
07:43schedule. I'm expecting them to do very well in this tournament.
07:4622 and a half is the spread now. It was 19 and a hook
07:50entering this past weekend. They were a minus 2300 favorite
07:54was Team USA in women's hoops to win their eighth consecutive
07:59gold medal. Gold is something that Simone Biles knows very
08:02well but Jacob after the Tokyo Olympics in which she had to
08:07withdraw from a few events due to mental health struggles. She
08:11was back out there yesterday injured her leg in warm ups and
08:15still led Team USA to the top spot in qualifying for team
08:20gymnastic events. What are you expecting out of Simone Biles
08:24and Team USA one final minute in this segment? I think that
08:29Team USA should win the gold. I think this is a kind of a
08:32redemption opportunity for them. Again, not that they were
08:35bad in Tokyo. They still took home the silver but they went
08:38in with gold expectations and Simone Biles just wasn't right
08:41and I think it really strained her and it killed her not to be
08:44able to be out there with her team and I think that's why she
08:47came back for these Olympics and you can just tell she feels
08:50confident right now and she's just nailing her routines. I
08:54think she has a potential to sweep gold medals across the
08:57events that she's in and if she gets in the uneven bars final,
09:01she could medal in every event. She's just one out of the
09:04alternate spot there so we'll see what happens. She's doing
09:07things that nobody has ever done. Moves, routines that
09:12nobody has ever even attempted. They call it the Simone now when
09:16she does that. Jacob Kammacher from Sporting News. We
09:19appreciate the time and the Olympic assessment.