The U.S. men's national basketball team followed up an embarrassing exhibition tournament and a couple last-minute dropouts with a degrading 83-76 loss to France in their first 2020 Summer Olympic game.
It was the first time since 2004 that the team had lost in the Olympics. France finished the game on a 14-0 run.
Team USA has now lost to Nigeria, Australia and France over the course of a few weeks.
The NBA's second-leading scorer last season, Bradley Beal, was forced to forgo his spot on the Olympic roster after entering coronavirus-related health protocols earlier this month.
Kevin Love, too, dropped out at the last second due to lingering effects from a calf injury he suffered during the regular season.
Beal and Love were replaced by Keldon Johnson — the San Antonio Spurs' fifth leading scorer last season — and JaVale McGee, who averaged just 14.7 minutes per game.
Futures odds on the U.S. to repeat as gold medalists have shortened substantially as a result of all these factors.
While the team opened at BetMGM as -1000 favorites to win its 16th gold medal, that fell to -800 after their 90-87 loss to Nigeria on July 10.
Then, after they lost their next exhibition to Australia two days later, their futures dropped to -600.
And after the late cancelations, their line fell further to -350.
Now, the line at BetMGM is -250 after the U.S.' humiliating defeat in Tokyo.
At PointsBet, the futures line also opened at -1000 and the sportsbook held firm even after Team USA lost to Nigeria.
But, after losing to Australia, the line dropped to -625. That line moved to -400 in the days leading up to the start of the Olympics.
The odds have yet to be reinstated as of Sunday morning, but PointsBet spokesperson Patrick Eichner said to expect the line to reemerge some time after the rest of the day's Olympic basketball games have been completed.
DraftKings opened their odds at -335 in June before the line moved steadily to -1000 in the lead-up to the Nigeria game.
The line didn't change after the Nigeria game, but moved all the way to -550 after Team USA's 91-83 loss to Australia on July 12.
That line has since shortened all the way to its current mark of -250 as of Sunday morning.
