The Boomers began their 2024 Paris Olympic Games campaign with a win against Spain and now it’s time for the women’s side, the Opals, to get their campaign underway. The Opals will face Nigeria on Monday night (7pm AEST) in an important Group B clash. We bring you our betting preview for the game below!
2024 Paris Olympic Games – Women’s Basketball
Australia vs Nigeria (Monday 7pm AEST)
The Opals come into Paris as one of the favourites to compete for the silver medal… with the gold medal seemingly out of reach for everyone not named USA who are currently paying $1.02 to win their eighth straight gold and are undefeated in their last 54 games at the Olympics.
The Opals came devastatingly close to making it to the final at the FIBA 2022 World Cup on home soil. They fell two points short in the semi-final against China but would go onto win comfortably in the bronze medal match against Canada.
It’s a different looking squad the Opals bring to Paris just two years later, although Lauren Jackson is still the big name with the 43-year-old set to play in her fifth games and also make history by becoming the oldest ever basketball player at the Olympics.
The Opals 12-women squad features seven players who currently ply their trade in the WNBA. Jade Melbourne is one of the young stars and will be running the show at the point guard position. Ezi Magbegor has become a superstar in the WNBA at the centre position and is regarded as one of the best players in the world.
Meanwhile, Nigeria would consider themselves extremely unlucky with the group they’ve been dealt in Paris. It’s just their third appearance at the Olympics where they have an overall record of 1-8, with their only win coming back in 2004 at Athens.
However, Nigerian basketball has come a long way in recent years and they’re currently ranked #12 in the world. In saying that, their lead up form to these Games has left a lot to be desired. They lost each of their last four lead up games and some of those were against far inferior nations to which they’ll meet on Monday night.
Game Prediction: The Opals have the advantage in this matchup whichever way you look at it. They have the size on both ends of the floor and superior talent at every position. The Opals ball pressure and shot blocking on defence is expected to be a feature, and it wouldn’t surprise at all to see Nigeria racking up a ton of turnovers which will lead to easy Opals scores. With all of that said, I’m expecting one-way traffic in favour of the #3 ranked Opals and like them to cover the big spread.
Australia -25.5
$1.90 (1 Unit)
