What time ?

Game time is 8:15pm AEST in Australia on Sunday night.

any live streaming online anywhere?

Opals are playing GB at the moment, they are up 19-11 in the 1st. LJ bails the Opals out so often when they don't have any offense.

The Boomers game tonight will be a very tough test against a Brazilian team many commentators suggest could medal

Has anyone used that link? Just tried it for Nigeria game but looks a bit dodgey. Have to download software?

Thats because the Nigeria/Tunisa game hasn't started yet, not till 6pm eastern / 5.30pm central.

use this link. its the best one. I watched the Opals this morning on it - http://www.thefirstrow.eu/sport/basketball.html

change the website clock to +9.30 for SA time and that will give you the actually time the link will work.

So 19.45 (7:45pm) it will be up.

GO BOOMERS

Cheers Phantom

SIgned up for a UK VPN / Proxy service. BBC is streaming everything. Watching Tunisia vs Nigeria now.

Looking forward to it! Heading to the pub with my mate to see the game.

What starters do we expect? I would think Andersen, Ingles and Mills are definites, but will Brown go for more size/ rebounding against Brazil's impressive frontline?

Was going to get Foxtel's internet TV service until I realised that those idiots have only made it compatible with some platforms (ie, ipad, xbox, samsung i-tv's). Nothing for PC users? WTF?

Anyway, lets hope the Boomers can get this one and make life a bit easier on themselves!

Love it Andrew Gaze is commentating the Tunisia vs Nigeria game.

Great to hear the "non-preferred" commentator John Casey back...

Haven't heard any him commentate for ages!

Agree Anon above. We complain about what we have in Australia but afer watching a stream of tye road cycling with Canadian commentators and then the Opals stream with a few Poms we are way ahead of the majority.

good start by the pg's

Aus up 18-15 brazil possession

Any decent internet streams?

Australia up 1 at quarter time...

haha Patty is a great actor

Is my internet a piece of shit or the feed?
I get 5 seconds, then it locks up for 15 seconds, then I get another 5 seconds.

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/132791/3/watch-olympic:-brazil-vs-australia.html

This link is working well for me and is decent quality...

Refs blwoing some very soft fouls both ways...Maric, Baynes and Andersen on 2 fouls each mid way through 2nd. 8-nil run by Brazil now has them leading by 3.

Australia only has 4 scorers so far...to Brazil's 8...

The refereeing is terrible for both sides, there has been more whistles than points. so far in the 1st and start of the 2nd quarter, the slightest touch or movement in a screen is being whistled. it makes it unnecessarily difficult to play and annoying to watch.

Otherwise good start by Australia.

huge by mills

Baynes has been good and kept us in touch late in the 2nd quarter.

We looked terrible at end of 2nd with Ingles running the show - barely anyone got a chance to touch the ball and he couldn;t take advantage of the mismatch..

Our 3 point shooting can't get any worse and we are only trailing by 1 at the half...and we were woeful on offense in that 2nd quarter...

I still reckon we look better offensively when Delly is on court running the show.

Awesome end of half play by Brazil but for the refs out there. Is that legal if ball is dea and not after a score. If you have a timeout then get the baseline ball can you run the baseline. Not sure Believe its possible after a score as you can run the baseline. But with a timeout are you still allowed to run the baseline

why is it these streams just revert back to the main page, or just don't work... ugghhhh, damn you thailand for not having bball in my hotel!

The timeout was after a made free throw hence at time in you can:

Run the ball along the baseline, and
pass the ball to someone who is also outside of the court on the baseline.

This is one reason i don't look forward to International play. It is so ticky tacky.

David Anderson needs to hit some shots.

Not a fan of this Ingles iso play it seems to predictable. At least get someone to screen for Delly in a pick and roll that's a better option.

Mills has been fantastic. I've been a critic of the 'patty jack' style but i don't think he's taken any bad shots. Still has to be careful driving into traffic.

Hope we haven't spent all our chips we're in a bit of foul trouble with our bigs. But the defense has been first rate.

Refs at this level don't usually call so many soft fouls...

Need to get some more movement early in offence and the ball in the hands of Delly...although I'm happy to see the ball in Ingles hands if the offence breaks down, but not at the start of the 24...

It was a great play called, but the timekeepers started the clock early! Aussies did the best thing they could do and walk straight to the change rooms and not wait for the refs to even consider calling them back!

This stream is working great for me, even has the oz Commentary..

http://www.hahasport.com/v-4/2/98/v-429982.html


We only down by 1 with a terrible 2nd quarter offensively.

GOOD
Defensive - mostly
Mills
BAYNES! - can't believe I'm saying this
commentary - Gaze + the other guy, again, can't believe I'm saying this.
Delli hitting his shots


BAD
Ingles - is he trying to play like melo?
refs - both ways really so we're not loosing out just annoying to watch
Offence when we don't play with tempo and pass the ball in the half-court
3pt shooting

We still haven't had ANY production from Andersen, Maric or Worthington.

We look good when we have guys slashing + attacking the rim.

GO BOOMERS!!!

looks like its about to be shown on channel 9 people, for how long i dont know.

Halftime player stats
Mills 12 points 5/12 FG 1/1 FT 3 ASTS 5 REB 2 T/O 2 fouls in 14:28
Gibson 1 foul in 1:37
Ingles 6 points 2/6 FG 2/2 FT 1 AST 3 T/O in 16:55
Newley 1 point 0/1 FG 1/2 FT 1 AST 1 STL in 12:17
Barlow DNP
Crawford DNP
Worthington no stats in 3:52
Dellavedova 6 points 2/3 FG 2/2 FT 2 Reb 1 stl 2 fouls in 11:38
Baynes 8 points 3/5 FG 2/2 FT 3 reb 2 T/O 3 Fouls in 8:41
Andersen 0/2 FG 4 Reb 1 T/o 2 fouls in 6:49
Nielsen 0/1 FG 3 AST 3 REB 1 block 1 steal 1 foul in 16:50
Maric 2 pts 1/1 FG 2 reb 1 to 3 fouls in 6:53

That was the bad patty right there. He is such a streaky player.

Boomers are just egh sometimes. Too often, really.

Then he slices through them like butter gotta love patty

SERIOUSLY FUCK OFF REFS

Patty mills split's splitter!!!!! I love Gaze

Lmao @ these refs

Lmao @ these refs

Lmao @ these refs

Think these Ref's are under the impression they are the main attraction...these fouls are just rediculous

Seriously, these refs are seriously bad. Seriously!

At least they are bad both ways, but gee wiz they are ruining the game...

We have been very sloppy offensively with some very poor turnovers...down by 7

turnover
turnover
turnover
ridiculous foul (following a turnover)

goddamn it. Look after the ball!

Back to back unsportsman like fouls......and both were laughable.

well that coverage was nice while it lasted.

These REFS are a joke - both ways the game is being ruined. Channel 9's 2 min of coverage is a joke as well

TURNOVER's!!!! Damn they are some horrible passes being thrown around!

Channel 9 is so awesome..2 channels showing the same thing instead of split feeds and "hosts" who think they should keep talking. Geezus who plans this rubbish

Cant make a shot...

14 turnovers hmm

Some pretty horrific decision making in this 3rd term. Australia and the refs neck and neck for who is in front in that department.

Turnovers are killing us right now...we are just another couple of plays away from potentially putting ourselves out of this game once and for all and we still have a quarter to go...

This is starting to hurt

Patty should stop being a ball hog. Brown should try PC or Barlow and let them shoot some 3s. Australias down by 13 what's there too lose trying PC or Barlow. currently 1/14 from 3pt line.

Someone please teach Baynes how to pass the ball

+1 lance

Still in the game if have it below 10 at 3/4

Andersen starting to come up with the goods! Great D at one end and Andersen putting points on the board

Anderson you little beauty

Got to say we've done well with the full court pressure and the focus on Delly-Anderson the last few minutes.

Andersen doing it down low - maybe Drewy is right - if Patty can't do it from the perimeter, maybe they should get PC in.

Ahh Anderson you give us hope...would be nice to see someone help him out in defence Brazil are passing well but are still scoring WAY to easily

26 Brazil points from turnovers. What a killer.

At least we're fighting.

3 point percentage will make or break us in this tournament because other than that we're pretty good.

The change up to a smaller line up and the resultant defensive pressure played dividends, whilst Andersen took the team on his shoulders and lifted our offense up off the canvas! Andersen seemed to relish the fact he was our go to player on offence and seemed to lift!

Andersen Finally does something in a real Boomers game when it matters.

7 points with a quarter to play. Time for Patty to take over!


GO BOOMERS!!!

yep... better with Patty on the bench

I would trade patty for any established true PG every day of the week

Yeah what's with Barlow?

I still think our offence is better when Delly has the ball in his hands...

Bring Delly on

Would like to see a lineup of mills delly newley baynes andersen to finish this

I dont think Mills is the problem. Nilson and Ingles are doing nothing on the court and are almost standstill in offence. Really makes it hard for a pg to pass when no ones moving for him.

Think the ref's just called a fould on Deladova for being hit by the brazil pg...geeezus

I just don't get why Newley doesn't get the ball flashing to he basket at least 1 in every 2 offence. At worst he will go to the line.

Sorry I ment Newley not Nilson

I don't think I've seen such a poor 3 point shooting display in a game of professional basketball. The Boomers like usual just can't get any decent offense going.

andersen you legend

Geez, they need to be going to Andersen every time down the floor

1/16 from 3pt range + turnovers the only reason why we are trailing right now.

Andersen's scoring is still the only guy keeping us in with a chance...

6 point game with 4min to play on an Ingles triple

threeball dropping now!

Finally we are starting to hit from long range on an Andersen triple...5 points in it with 3:17 to go

Although Im a MIlls fan, Patty has played like an NBA player tonight..selfishly, more worried about his own stat line than the best option on offense. too much self-belief.

Joe Ingles is arguably just as an effective scorer as Mills but Mills seem to ignore his PG duties and as such Ingles has not taken a FG since the 1st quarter.

Gotta hit FT's now Nielsen...

6pts 2:08 to go

Andersen big rebound, Mills on a quick penetration...4 point game with 1:30 to go

Barbosa's size and athleticism has given them huge problems today.

Ingles getting involved - 4 points still with 1min to go

Ingles just bailed out Patty's hero or zero play. Charge on Barbosa with 39 secs. 73-69 Brazil.

Wow...Mills on a transition three-ball attempt misses, but we quickly drew an offensive foul and have the ball back with 39.4 sec to go trailing by 4.

Come on Boomers! A quick score here and stop for a chance to win??? Please!

YES COME ON

Wow. Ingles enourmously impressive down the stretch.

Im going to take credit here...I bagged Ingles and he stepped it up almost immediately hehe

Nice offence and score! 2 point game with 29.4 seconds to go! We need a stop and we have a chance to win....


Goooo BOOMERS!!!!!!!!!

Ingles stepping up hugely

go boomers go!!!!!!!

Wow this is going down to the wire. Great backdoor pass to Ingles. They need that stop now ...

Baynes, Andersen, Ingles and Mills are standing up at the moment...big defensive stop required right now but we can't foul and send them to the line...

Ohhh SH&T!!!

Foot violation and a shot clock reset!!! We now have to foul....

Mills with an almost miracle steal...

ARGh!! #&^$^% At least Mills got the foul off...

How did nobody foul out of that game. That just amazes me.

Brazil his both FT's...we need a triple and one miracle to see OT...can Mills do it twice in the same game? Ingles?

Always wondered what is the logic behind the rule to reset the shot clock for a foot violation.

Awwwwwww that was sooooooooo upsetting that steal would have been EPIC...Love that wasnt a unsportsman like but the earlier two were.

Really good last quarter by the guys hopefully a big confidence builder after the first 3 quarters...really after 14+ turnovers they can build alot on this performance

Proud of how we fought it out but big opportunity missed

thats what the coach had instructed Mills, shoot the ball. blame the coach then

Fiba fails again

It's over. 74-71. Hero ball down the stretch by Boomers masking serious problems protecting the ball and poor perimeter shooting.

Their defence did well when cranked up but they should have gone inside earlier. The Brazillians did not seem to be able to contain Andersen's low post game and that time Newley got the rack exposed a weakness in their interior defence.

Barbosa's size gave them problems as he posted or drove past the Aussie guards while Huertas gave them a steady back court leader to guide them home down the stretch.

Patty - top scorer but awful shooting percentage and questionable shot selection.

That reffing was poor. They better get it right when USA take to the court against France cause I can't see Lebron or Kobe accepting those calls.

I don't know what that foul on Delly was after the Big 3 there that might have cost us the game. Although i'm more inclined to believe that it was a ref stuff up because Delly's had like maybe one technical in his life.

i remember i had written AIS if they can create go-to-guy type of players because that what the Boomers need. We cannot win with this Netball kind of offence. There has to be someone who attacks the rim when the tough is going. We cannot blame Mills for throwing too many shots because no one does.

Admirable finish to lose by 4...

But in all reality, our three-point shooting up until the final quarter was woeful - we were 1/15 before Andersen and Ingles fired.

Couple that with some very poor turnovers, and that cost us right there.

Brazil were IMO the better team on the day, but we got so close without playing anywhere near as good as the Brazilians.

I guess that's something we can take away...but we can't do that again against Great Britain, Russia or Spain if we want to progress.

Andersen really stepped up for Australia in the 2nd half arguably his best shooting performance at a WC or Olympics.

Baynes was very good all game and kept us in the contest.

Ingles stepped up late in the game to help close the margin.

Mills was very good and at times looked like the only guy that could score for us.

I'm surprised Barlow didn't get a look in at least in the 3rd quarter when things were going awry, and surely PC should have got a look in at the 3rd quarter as well when we did not look like hitting from deep. Isn't that why we took him?

One more quick observation, we were impotent on offence with Ingles running the point, and looked better with Delly running the show, however I think the occasion may have gotten to Delly in this one and I think he will be better for the experience moving forward.

9 showing most of the second half.....unfortunately, that was the only miracle. Brutal foot violation...as the boys had scrambled nicely.
Barlow, still not forgiven for his game killing turnover all those years ago?
Patty - never seen a shot he didn't shoot. :)
Joe, Ando and Baynes....great game boys. Really outstanding effort by those two bigs against that frontline.

Delly plays tenacious D and involves his teammates which is why his playing time (if not more playing time) is justified. With talent like Newley and Ingles all you need is a pass first pg. Patty needs to improve his shot selection he was excellent in patches but equally bad like in that 3rd quarter. But then again I doubt he'll change. Brett Brown obviously has given him the green light.

Lol some of you guys are hilarious

We cant win with this offense? we didnt shoot well, we had lots of bad turnovers and we nearly won the game and went down by 4 against a team with quite a few NBA players

You want some cheese with your whine? And anonymous you need to stfu about Delly, he's the only true PG on the team, you know Mills is a shoot first type of guy you cant have him running the offense most of the time

go to guy = Bogut only that he's out...

Aussies always live and die by the three. Today, it didn't work. But that last five minutes showed how we can play when we up the tempo. It was quite an impressive loss, if such things exist. Knock down a better percentage from 3, we win that game.

when the Boomers were down 13 in the 3rd, wouldn't that be the time to bring on barlow or PC and tell them to shoot 3s, give them a couple of minutes if they don't get it done, sub them off. BUT don't stick with Mills license to shoot.Some poor decisions from Brown but exceptionally poor shooting from the Boomers, particulary MIlls.

Andersen finally stood up and played as well as we have seen him play in Europe and the NBA for the Boomers.

Now have to beat China, Great Britain and Russia to avoid the crossover with the US.

Thanks Sircreate...some absolute crap being written about some of the Boomers in this thread at the moment.

Right with you on your take of it.

Also, Brett Brown has to utilise more Andersen on the post up plays. His skills on the low post is the best i ever saw among Boomers since. He can even effectively do it against team USA

Why on earth didnt we foul with 29 seconds left?? Unbelievable. Surely Brown has learned that in his four years?

I wrote in my preview the Boomers would make Australia proud with their effort but not have the offensive class to beat the top teams. Sadly, that was the case tonight.

We play better with the shackles off, let's hope that's the lesson we take from this game. One issue is other teams will see from tonight that Delly struggles to exploit bigs if they switch the on-ball, that could take away a valuable offensive option.

shove off patty haters.

is a damn good player and im proud to have him on our team. takes alot of responsibility.

stop expecting him to be everything.

think you could do better with what he has?? doubt it.

Based on the pre-olympics game and what a few experts are saying about Brazil they might be our toughest matchup. So perhaps some reason for optimism??

On the game our 3pt% was too poor, and while Brazil's was only marginally better, they were able to make up for it with a bit more athleticism.

We need more from Newley and Maric especially (foul trouble permitting) to ease the offensive burden on Mills, Ingles and Andersen.

Oh and what's the deal with Barlow? Injured or just out of favour?

It's actually a bit bizarre the selection of Crawford. If he's not in the squad to be that 3 point specialist what was the point of him being selected.
Is he here to beat up on Great Britain and China?
Another big guy would have been handy tonight just saying. Bit of a waste of a selection.

Shocked Barlow didn't play. Is he Injured or is he no longer in favour with Brown? I thought he was a shoe in for some playing time. Not that i'm a fan but I thought Brett was?

hate him or take him but looks this team will live with Patty Mills shots

Also would of helped if Maric wasn't just a foul magnet!!!

Goods to see Fiba brings the best refs again. Well refed game I thought. Right up there with Nealsons offense, why did Baynes get subbed off at the end for him, we will never know

Have to admit I didn't think we would do as well as we did against Brazil. Had a strong 2nd and 4th quarter, just needed a little bit more in between. Really hate that rule when the shot clock resets after hitting defenders foot. Doesn't reward the team for playing good D....wish fiba would look into changing it.

Brazil defeated Australia 75-71.

Brazil
Barbosa 16pts, 4 rebounds
Huertas 15pts, 4 rebounds
Varejao 12pts, 7 rebounds
Nene 10 points, 7 rebounds
Splitter 7 pts, 7 rebounds

Australia
Mills 18pts, 7 rebounds
Ingles 15pts, 3 rebounds
Andersen 14pts, 8 rebounds
Baynes 10pts, 5 rebounds
Dellavedova 6pts, 3 rebounds

Boxscore:

http://london2012.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/12/olym/p/eid/6232/ct/0/gid/12/grid/B/rid/9091/sid/6232/game.html

Dont buy the good effort against a really good team. We have to beat good teams, this is the Olympics, and in 2006 we beat almost the same Brazilian team with a far inferior team. Tonight we lost by 4 but were thoroughly outplayed for much of the night.

Definitely some good signs though, and certainly more shots for Andersen and less for Mills would be a good start. Mills creating shots for Crawford in a cameo appearance would also make sense.

The thing with tournaments is you cant dwell on it. Learn what you need to learn and then move on to the next game. Certainly if we have a great night we can beat Russia or Spain, but it will take something special.

What times our game against spain and then the game against china?

Theyre both at 815pm. GB is at 5am and Russia at 6pm.

Can't really complain about the game times...pretty good for us here in Oz...

Mills always seems to have super productive first quarters on offense for some reason

As much as patty brings to the side offensively, I'm tempted to say if he takes less shots we win tonight.

Yes, but if Mills hits two more threes, we win the game and he is a hero. Tough to be the slightly underwhelming 'star' on a team without star quality. Sure we play better when we play as a team, but sometimes you have to have someone who just takes the game on their shoulders, win or lose.

I like the fact he came out to take it on, that's a great attitude to have rather than playing hesitant. I dont like the fact he didnt adjust as the game went on and the shots werent dropping.

He is only 23 though, it's easy to forget that. Think how good he's going to be in 2014, 2016, 2019 and 2020!!

from the broken feed i was able to finally get to watch the game, Mills shot way too much and far too early in offense, didn't drive the ball much. Dela did ok, and seemed to be the more matured PG of the 2. Defence was average at best (considering the refs calls, I can see why). Not enough muscle used, which is supposed to be one of our best attributes over the years!

If we are going to rely on Mills and play like a bunch of pussies we may as well just throw the towel in now and just make every match from here on in a forfeit and not waste everyones time...

For the anon who has been constantly complaining that Barlow didn't see court time, you obviously haven't watched a Boomers game for awhile now. Barlow hasn't had a good game for the Boomers for a year or more. Can't remember the last time I saw him shoot with any confidence. Small chance he could have made life a little difficult for Marcelinho (best player for Brazil tonight?) with his length, but more likely would have struggled to stay in front of him.

As far as Dellavedova playing too many minutes, once again you are showing that you don't watch the Boomers much. He is the ONLY PG the Boomers have and it shows when he runs the offence. When he was off the floor, we had Ingles ISO's or a Mills shooting gallery.

Agree with the comment earlier about Newley and Ingles attacking the rim more. Would like to see more of that play they ran a couple of times where the big screens on the edge of the key for Newley to catch and curl to the basket. We really didn't exploit the lack of athleticism from Brazil's mid-size players in that way and could have racked up some more fouls on Varejao and Nene to keep them on the bench longer.

It was a good effort in the end to get back into the game, but it should be pretty clear to all the Boomers that we were good enough to beat Brazil. We fell short because we were too careless with the ball and continue to do a poor job of playing to our strengths and exploiting mismatches on offence.

Props to ch 9 for showing more Bball in one night than I have seen in the past two Olympics. Keep it up!

I say that, and it changes to a ho hum water polo match, followed by diving. Must get Foxtel.

XY yep was happy, now back down to the PC for streaming.

I thought Spain played several levels below their best when we played them in the practice games. I suppose we can hope that Spain treats us lightly and have a bad night while things click for us.

Anyone know where you can access some slightly more analytical statistics than the standard FIBA box score?

I think lineup combination +/- statistics would speak volumes about what is wrong with the Boomers at this point.

Good work by our guys to get so close but we didn't deserve to win it. I can't say the emphasis on athleticism over skills worked well tonight - better outside shooting would have made a big difference.

Did anyone else have the feeling that Brazil never really got out of second gear? While we struggled for most of our points, Brazil seemed to have it fairly easy.

Bogut could have made such a difference.

The streak continues. We'll have to wait until 2016 to win the first game! Haven't done so since 1996.

A couple observations from me, apologies if they're obvious;

1) Way too many turnovers. Happy to turn the ball over if we're being aggresive offensively, but a lot of them came from sloppy passing.
2) Delly didn't have his best game. I would expect him to get better throughout the tournament. Would still prefer him running the point. Though he got a fair basketball lesson from Huertas. Hopefully Delly can become a 15pt/10ast guy for us in the future.
3) Maric needs to drop in the rotation behind Baynes. So frustrating seeing him lumber around out there. I nearly kicked in the TV when he soft fouled Splitter for that and-1 play. Whats the point of being 125kg if you're not going to knock a bloke over and make sure he doesn't score when comitting a foul. Plus he gives us nothing offensively. At least Baynes can make something happen in the post, plus he can hit the midrange J.
4) Andersen needs to get some more shots. He looked solid in the post, working the turnaround J.
5) Newley and Ingles should shoulder a fair amount of responsibility for our performance. They need to share in the scoring load, and take some pressure off Patty. People complain about Patty taking too many shots, but he had no help from the wings at all for the first three quarters. Newley needs to be agressive and get to the rim. Ingles needs to stop settling from the stepback J and try to get into the paint to make something happen.
6) If Brett Brown is not going to play PC when we're 1/14 from the 3-point line, then I don't understand why he bothered to even take him. Getting someone out there that could hit a long range shot would have changed the complexity of the game completely.

All in all, whilst disappointing to lose, given how poorly we shot the ball, coupled with the amount of turnovers we had, we were still in the game right to the end, and we can only get better.

Brazil actually shot it worse! But agree 100% on the PC call. We gave ourselves that sniff late when we hit those three triples, had PC hit one or two a little earlier we might have had a real chance of winning, it's not rocket science!

How is it that Chris Paul (USA vs France) just kicked the ball out of court with 22 secs to go in quarter and shot clock is still sitting at 15 secs??
Exact same thing happened to us last night yet shot clock reset??? Umpires discretion??

Ch9 went to the game early in the third for 2 minutes
for 3 Boomers turnovers , 2 unsportsmanlikes , a timeout and Brasil going to the biggest lead so far.
Not a pretty sight . Wouldn't blame them if they didn't go back , but they did for the David Anderson spectacular . Later they showed some Team USA , but the refs were still blowing all the whistles.

Want to comment but feel like I am repeating what is already said..

Need to hit some more threes.
Need to be more careful with the ball.
If Mills is going to shoot 30 shots a game, at least fake the shot/drive and kick it out to an open player every once in a while.
Bigs getting into foul trouble hurt us also.

Considering the above I think we did well to only be down by 4 at the end of the game. Hopefully they learn alot from that and don't make the same mistakes again.

Haven't got a replay in front of me, and referees feel free to correct me on this one, but at the time it looked like the pass was thrown into the foot of the Aussie player (ingles?), which makes it not a foot-violation due to the incidental contact.

Thought there had to be intent for a foot violation to occur: an opposition player trying to thread the needle through a defender and hitting his feet should be play on, shouldn't it?

Mick, you are correct.
For a foot violation to be called it must be a "kicked ball"

ie it should be intentional contact from the foot

When watching last night, my imediate reaction was that it should have just been called out of bounds off the foot but I didn't get to see it twice so not sure if the OZ players foot came out to kick the ball or not??

Latrentis that's the rule. In front court shot clock resets to 14 if below 14 or it stays where it is if above 14. In our case clock was down to about 4 but game clock only at 9.3. Incidentally for earlier poster ww didn't foul at 29.3 because they should have got ones last chance after Brazil's last 24 sec offence but for the foot violation.

Latrentis, a rule update for you.
if the shot clock was on 15 seconds and the foot violation was in the front court then it stays @ 15 because of the latest rule variation.

It does not reset to 24 seconds anymore
only resets to 14

It's foot violation if you extend your leg in defensive stance & ball hits it eg from a pass. Doesn't have to be foot, can be part of leg, still "foot" violation.

The great thing about the Olympic basketball competition (and the world championships) is that few teams are expected to win all their games (with the exception of the US). As such, and unlike other sports, we do not see too many "minnow" type teams because most teams have earnt their spot in the competition. At best there might be one, maybe two (depending on the strenght of the host nation's team).

Why no Barlow, Crawford? Possibly keeping them on ice for the games that the Boomers have tabbed as "will win". I think the spin doctors call it "player management" and getting the balance between "burn out" and "peaking at the right time" is a key element to the success of the team's campaign, especially when every game is tough. FWIW, I don't think Barry Barnes showed much "player management" in Sydney, a competition I thought was our best ever chance of winning a men's basketball medal.

I'm not suggesting this is only reason why they got no burn, but it could be part of a broader strategy.

Anon, Spain probably not. Russia is a good chance.

But they have to ensure they get the job done against China and GB.

China are actually #10 in the world according to FIBA's rankings. We're #9 and Russia is #11.

We were quite competitive with Spain in the exhibition matches but I think the Spainards will bring their A game now they're on the big stage

Vart, I'm with you regarding Maric. Baynes is more of a threat offensively, more active on the glass, and plays much better D. Maric lacks the intensity and desire that every other Boomer plays with. He looks somewhat disinterested the way he lumbers up and down the court.

I was a big fan of what Maric brought to the table the last time around but you're right, his effort needs to step it up. He should be our best big on this squad. He's our worst right now.

Not saying Barlow and Crawford couldn't play 5 minutes, suggesting their contributions to the team are relatively selective; i.e. Crawford primarily his 3 point shooting, Barlow his defence (allegedly) and that perhaps Brown's strategy for last night's game was to keep his strongest individuals on the court and see if they could pinch the win. As such Barlow and Crawford were not part of his considerations for last night's game and he wasn't prepare to divert from his plan.

I'm asking myself the same question as others, why did they not get court time. Our team does not comprise a starting five that is conditioned to play big minutes in tough games every second day over a one week period so possibly some consideration has been given to how, and when to use players strategically.

Will Brett's decision hurt the team's chances of getting through the next round? We can only speculate.

ESPN has Gamecast Live on it's website for all games.

Neilsen can't guard 3s IMO. I'd start as we do currently. I actually thought Delly was fine last night & Mills is better suited to playing off ball to get his points.

Only change I would possibly make to the starting five is to bring either Baynes or Maric in as the starting centre, and move Andersen to the four spot. That seemed to be working well in the trial games, plus I don't like the balance with both Maric and Baynes coming off the bench. Delly will get better the deeper this thing goes, Patty won't shoot 9/24 every game either. I don't think there is need for any drastic changes, and I agree with Obie Trice, Nielsen can't guard threes.

It was curious to see Brown make such changes. Removing Maric from the starting lineup against a big Brazilian team, and giving Barlow no court time after he had been a starter in a few of the preparation games.

I suppose Maric has been injured and may need to be given limited minutes throughout the tournament, and Baynes is not really starter material. Having said that, I am warming to Baynes, even though at times it's like watching basketball being played by someone from the stone-age. Meanwhile, Barlow without a confident jumpshot is not much value. He has only had one decent shooting game against Spain.

The form heading into the tournament had Ingles, Andersen and Mills all feeling confident. That seems to be continuing (in Mills case, maybe too much so). Now we need Delly, Newley, Maric, and possibly another wing (I'll include Wortho in that) to step up.

It should be remembered concerning Maric for those who've forgotten, he injured himself in the first spanish game. He hasnt had the game time to really get comfortable with the team so far so he should improve unlike Baynes who did improve as the pre-tournament games went by(some of you seem to forget many here were calling Baynes out during the first few games for poor play).

And the Boomers haven't had many games as a full unit against quality opposition. We've had one of the worst preparations in that respect.

Thanks guys, I understand why it's a 'foot' violation as I do play ball, just wasn't aware of the rule change regarding resetting to 14 secs. Cheers Razor.

Sircreate, the Olympics is the wrong time to "try and get comfortable with the team".

At least Baynes hussles for boards and is active on D. Did anyone see the play where Brown tore Maric a new one for being too slow on the defensive rotation? At the last World's, Maric showed the same lack of intensity on defence. He simply does not hussle hard enough on D, is too slow to rotate and help off his man and gives up too many easy lay-ups. When he does help, he is too slow to recover, which is why teams target him on the penetration and dish.

If he is that casual on the help and recover against Spain, Gasol will go for 30 and we will get spanked.