USA vs. Japan Women's Basketball 2020 Tokyo Olympics: Odds and expert picks vs. spread, total for Friday's matchup

The United States women's basketball team aims to continue its unbeaten run in Olympic competition on Friday. Team USA is 1-0 in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and they will face Japan on Friday in group play. Japan also won their Olympic opener in Tokyo. 

Tip-off is set for Friday at 12:40 a.m. ET. William Hill Sportsbook has Team USA listed as a 19.5-point favorite. Team USA is also listed at -2400 on the money line (risk $2400 to win $100), while the Over-Under is set at 162. 

Before making any 2020 Olympics bets, be sure to see what SportsLine's Olympics expert, Mike Tierney, has to say.

A national sportswriter whose work appears in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Tierney has covered nine Olympic Games in person. For Rio in 2016, Tierney profited big-time. He told readers to bet Over on Team USA's gold medal count (41.5) and Over on Team USA's overall medal count (102.5). The result? 46 golds, 121 medals and two easy cashes.

And for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Tierney hit two of his three predictions: Germany (+200) to win the most gold medals and the United States winning Under 10.5 gold medals (+110).

Now, with the Tokyo Summer Olympics underway, Tierney has analyzed every angle of Friday's USA-Japan women's basketball matchup to help bettors find the best betting options. Tierney is leaning on the over for the point total.

He's also identified an x-factor that has him jumping all over one side of the spread. You ABSOLUTELY need to see what he has to say before locking in your picks. 

Who wins Friday's USA vs. Japan matchup? And what X-factor makes one side of the spread a MUST-BACK? Join SportsLine right now to find out which team in the USA vs. Japan game you should back against the spread, all from the expert who has crushed his Olympic picks!

Tierney's pick: 

Team USA -19.5

The Americans stumbled out of the blocks with a hardly dazzling nine-point victory over Nigeria. No worries. A 23-0 run soon after it trailed 20-17 displayed Team USA in full splendor. Japan, which opened with an unsteady four-point win over France, could give the U.S. fits with an offense that emphasizes movement to create mismatches and three-point shooting. At the other end of the court, however, a mismatch looms. The average height of Japanese players is 5-foot-9. Nine Americans are 6 feet or taller, with 6-9 Brittney Griner likely to score at will and teammates able to post up. Fatigue will be no factor. Other than Breanna Stewart, who logged 34 1/2 minutes, every American played fewer than 28. In Rio, the average winning margin for the U.S. was 37 points. Time for a blowout that was typical five years ago.