i agree. would like to see them play with confidence and keep their momentum. i guess playing the US, they would try to keep the final margin within 20. that would be a huge success i reckon. not holding my breath though as the US can blow a game out from 1 to 20 in 2 minutes.

Yep the BA preview on their website is wrong as it states we can still finish 3rd.

Article here explaining the possibilities:

http://london2012.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe/12/olym/news/p/nid/53219/article.html

I would be surprised if that happened, with so little chance against the USA I dont think you pass up your last chance for a victory - Olympic wins are nothing to be sneezed at.

The Boomers are also 0-5 against quality opponents in Brett Brown's two major tournaments, so I imagine he will need this win to make a claim for keeping the job (assuming he wants it).

Avv - according to that FIBA article 'USA will top Group A unless they lose to Argentina by 17 points or more, in which case the South Americans finish top'.

That should be prefaced by also mentioning that should Nigeria upset France, then Argentina only have to beat the USA, regardless of margin, to finish on top.

patty will go for 40 or more tonight go pat

I'd assume that Australia will play pretty hard to try to notch up a (moral) victory and, as has been stated here already, ride a wave of form into a likely USA matchup.
I'm very interested to see how Russia approach this one. Probably resting a few horses to be fresh for their crossover game against the much deeper Group A opponent (Lithuania aren't catching anyone by surprise now).

Result: I'll tip the Boomers by not much and the Russians to care even less.

Any links to live feed for this game

This site is usually the best.

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/134188/1/watch-olympic:-australia-vs-russia.html

I suspect 9 may show a fair bit of this as there's not a lot else on at this hour.

They better they were showing the women's France vs Russia game on a similar time yesterday.

Ohhhh! Patty block bwahaha!

Damn I wish I wasn't working. Is there a live box score link?

From what I could see Anderson and Ingles are shooting pretty well in the first 5mins and they are not subbed out yet.

Maric sucks! How was this guy a Euro League All Star 5 player only 2 year ago. Looks slow, unathletic and just out of his depth. Surely taking a gamble on Jawaii being engaged mentally would have been a better option than him....

Fun game! Its like a 9am all star game.

Can't trust Channel 9, they'll switch to another event right when the game is close!!
Need to play solid D tonight..none of this jumping crap.

Delly to Baynes should be our "go to" play if we're in a "last shot" situation. BOOM!

Love that Delly to Baynes combo!

BOOOOOOOOM!
If Tyson Chandler wears one of those Oops on his head I'm making my own medals and giving them to Delly and Baynes

Fletch, there are live stats on the Olympic site.

Move over Gaze to Copeland, Payton to Kemp, Nash to Stoudemire...

Delly to Baynes is where it's at. How many times have they pulled that alley off!

Delly enormously impressive - got a great stroke from three as well.

Cheers for that Isaac

channel 9 finally show more than 2 mins in a row

Nielson is a ridiculously shit player.

ahahahahahahah, Russian coaches wearing Jeans!!!! hahahaa

Nielson has been a lynchpin of the Boomers for years and provides invaluable leadership on this team.

What a crap foul!! Why????

Faked the &hit out of him!!

Harry Balls, I'm talking about what he produces on-court and at the current time. He was good, he is beyond shit now (for this level anyway).

Interesting foul shot....we should foul him more often and send him to the line!!!!!

I love these games with little riding on them, you really get to see the skills of the players.

Nice to see us being so aggressive at both ends, that's how we should play. It was the same in Beijing, took us thrashing a shite opponent to discover our own style suits us best!

In South Australia Channel 9 went to news at 6pm but the game stayed with Channel 90 .
Good coaching from Brown to leave the better players on for longer . Graf has made me a nervous wreck .
I know Clarke's subs are preplanned but might be learning here.
Delly pretty good out there .

Cali, David Blatt might be wearing jeans and his fashion sense might be terrible..


But he is one of the best coaches in the world.
Makes Brown look second rate.

Probably not the thread to put this on but...I just read this:

"In order for the Boomers to avoid the USA in the first round of the finals, this is what needs to happen:

Tonight,

AUS V RUS - Australia wins by 1*

ESP v BRA – Spain defeats Brazil by 12*

*For every point Australia wins by, Spain can win by one less point.

By Brazil losing to Spain and Australia defeating Russia, Australia becomes tied for 3rd with Brazil with a 3-2 record. Points for and Points against will determine who finishes in 3rd and 4th. By Brazil losing by a minimum of 12 and Australia winning by a minimum of 1 (if Brazil lose by the minimum), Australia will finish 3rd"

Is that right? Could this match actually mean something to us but nothing to Russia?

Its not correct. Head to head is the first tie breaker. Australia, if they win, finish 3-2. Either Spain or Brazil will finish 3-2 but both beat Australia in their single game and will be ahead of AUS as a result of that.

That's what I thought. Got excited and clung to false hope for a sec there.

Anyone have any other links or feeds.......as thefirstrow is down for me?

Why do we continue to try and double team leaving wide open 3 point shooters??
Agree with you Camel, Graf is killing me with her substitutions.

Jingles!!!

Firstrowsports is down for me too...desprately searching for another link as C9 is now sowing heats fo 100m womens' hurdle that do not feature any Aussie just yet...

Boomers playing fantastic basketball...I think if we continue to play this way we need ot expect a turnover or two but it is just so refreshing to watch!

Delly has been great and is forming an amazing tandem with Baynes - back to back alley oops in the first were great to watch...

Great commentary Drewy.
"Mills has the ultimate shooter's mentality, he could be 1-for-his-whole-life and he still believes he'll make the next one"

One of the commentators on an Al Jazeera stream just said Wortho is over 6'10"
"

69-64 at 3qtr time...still playing very well.

Interesting to see we ended the third with 4 guards/swingmen on court with Nielsen our sole big.

On other thread LC
http://www.hahasport.com/v-4/2/134/v-433525.html

Can Anderson actually jump?

WOW the Russian Coach!!!!!

Batt takes no shit

Boys gone a little cold from the outside......but owning the glass.

Thanks...I'm on it...

We have missed a couple we should have made and our offence appears to be tightening up here down the stretch

Haven't hit much this quarter....please oh please one shot to drop!!

So angry right now, we cannot hit the three, just can't do it. In fact can't hit anything.....useless on offense.

c'mon Delly to Baynes
are they even both on?!

Mills at the buzzer with a 3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to win!

HOLY SWEET PATTY!!!!

OH MY!

Millllllllllls!

Pppppppppppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttttttt ttttttttttttttttttttyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllsssssssss ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! I had just said after 6 straight misses they should go to Mills because he was due! RAINBOW!

I should have waited a minute or so before I posted that last post by me....good(ish) win in the end (shooting the three still a concern).

Flashbacks from the Atlanta Qtr Final...

Nine are taking the piss surely? They spent the last 20 minutes at the track for a whole 13 seconds of actual action instead of showing that ending!

We did really well on the O boards! Come on Argentina!!!!

PAAAAAAAATTTTTTYYYYYY

Love how Channel 9 have just gone back to show the last minute of the Boomers game! Kind of after the fact...

Wow - we win by 2 thanks to a Patty Mills buzzer-beating three at the death!

Final score is 82-80.

What a game! That final quarter got a bit messy by both teams down the stretch but I think that was the players getting tired due to the punishing pace and physicality of the game.

Ingles top scored for us with 20 points on 8/11 shooting (2/5 3PT, 2/2 FT) alongside 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 turnover.

Andersen had 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 3 turnovers.

Mills had 13 points on 5/16 shooting (3/10 3PT) to go with 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 4 turnovers.

Newley was great with 9 points on 3/5 shooting (1/1 3PT, 2/2 FT) to go with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 turnover.

Delly was again effective, scoring 10 points on 2/6 shooting (2/5 3PT, 4/4 FT) to go with 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 2 turnovers.

Love it - Go Boomers!

Yeah, Newley was fantastic. He, Ingles and Delly were the stars. The best bit though was the way everyone played with confidence. That's the first time Ive seen that under Brown. All of a sudden Maric hits a couple of shots and Nielsen becomes a threat. If only we'd been doing that since 2010!!

We did really well on the O boards! Come on Argentina!!!!

Great setup with the in-bounds and pass back. Carry the form through to the US!

Boomers vs Russia Box Score!

Still pumped after that win!!!

I know the game had little bearing on who finished where, but it was a win against one of the best teams in this Olympic competition and we led for more than 90% of the game!

Can someone tell me whether it is head to head in the event of a tie or is it points differential?

WOWWWWWWWWWWWW

A game against the the USA is not all that bad if you look at it from another perspective...you could argue it launched Mills' career and held weight in getting him an NBA gig.

A good showing by Delly, Andersen, Baynes, Maric, Ingles and even Newley could do their NBA aspirations no harm...

Now just imagine, for one moment, what a win against USA would do for Australina basketball????

OK, Ill imagine it, but only for a minute!!

Even though he ain't like he used to be , a bitta Nielsen's experience helped us there.

Yep, lotsa contributors tonight all playing with confidence, made up for Andersen and Mills going 10/34, especially with our offensive rebounding.

The control from Ingles on that last play was impressive. I was like screaming for him to do something but it was a great setup from Brown and finish from Patty (who missed a bit of gimmy when we were up by four to secure the W) You get the feeling he relishes those last second shots.

Go Boomers but deja vu from Beijing it seems!!!

Did anyone else do anything embarassing when the game winner dropped?

I screamed "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" which scared the crap out of my sleeping dog.
Then burst into fits of girlish giggles.
Then ran down the hall to get my wife to show her the replay and nearly killed myself slipping over in socks on the tile floor.

Aww , a loud how could you miss that groan from the crowd when he missed a wide open set shot just before three quarter time , then he puts one like that in .

Awesome job by the Boomers. Maric has been useless all tournament, yes tonight he had 6pts but otherwise slow, no hustle, very stagnant not a great defender and one dimensional on offence.

Agree LC re: the Boomers v USA. I guess its not the Olympics if Australia doesn't get to play the USA.

Although, if we finished 3rd I do think the Boomers had a real chance against France or Argentina, but not to be.

Is it fair to say that Joe Ingles did a great job on AK47?

No. But it is definitely fair to say he did a great job overall, super game and as someone above said we shouldnt forget his perfect pass at the end.

I think, firstly, this should give him confidence to really press for more minutes at Barcelona.

Just a newbie question....If Australia loses to the US, does that mean that we can still possibly play for a Bronze?

LisaG: no we can't.

Our game against the USA will be the last 8 teams. All the losers from that round are out of the tournament. All 4 winners advance, and they will play 2 more games. (A semi final, and either the gold/silver game or the bronze medal playoff)

Don't forget we may get Bogut back for the next WC or in 4 years in Brazil. The future of the wings and guards looks fine. Need some of the younger bigs to develop.

remember guys that this is Olympics that even Team USA has something to worry(when we think they're not) because of the nature of the game in a very short tournament.

reading from the news today after the scaring game against Lithuania, there seems to be a blame game inside the team apparently for lacking of communication between players.

and if we take what had Coach Brown said that "players never lost belief". and that will be the backbone of the team, its the spirit

Great job guys, Ingles shutting down Kirilenko was a joy to watch! GREAT FKN GAME!!!!!!!

That shoved it up all the haterz. esp all the trolls over the last week and a bit. Patty is a undersized shooting guard. Joe Ingles has similar attributes to Magic Johnson. 6'9 swingman/point guard What a gun. Who ever says he doesn't have a NBA body is a dumb c**t. Newly is a defensive menace and can run the lanes with the best of em. Anderson deserves another crack at the NBA Stretch four with nice touch. And DELLY dang NBA here we come. Fu** i love the Boomers. Ch9 is a absolute joke of a station. and so are the Refs. Seriously. WTF

Time to watch Breaking BAd

Agree fstos, 2014 and 2016 are our best window.

We need to make sure whoever is coaching has them playing tonight's aggressive style from day dot, and have a better offensive system that doesnt rely on three players to take all the shots - tonight our two lowest % shooters took almost half our shots.

I think we also need to get Nathan Jawai and Luke Nevill fully integrated into the program, and I would like Steve Markovic and Aaron Bruce to at least get a look in, a player off the bench who can create like Delly would be very handy.

Jawai can give us an offensive x-factor inside, and Nevill can give us a legitimate centre who can guard on-balls and hit jumpers consistently, which we desperately need when Andersen is off the court or off his shot.

Just frustrated we dropped that game to Brazil. Damn it!

Great gutsy win boys.

Watched the last play to get Patty free for the three a few times. It was beautifully executed by all 5 players. Congrats to Brett Brown for this one.

Regarding Ingles and the NBA, Kirilenko doesn't have an NBA body either.


Also who do you think we will match up on Lebron?

Re Kirilenko's body, appearances can be deceptive, he is a far superior athlete to Ingles. If Joe had the NBA body he would prob have had a look in. He doesnt so he will 1) have to really prove himself and 2) improve his body!!

Everyone should bait the Team USA players on Twitter.

Who cares who we play next. I love watching international basketball, especially the Boomers. It's a great change to watching the NBA. Playing basketball as it should be played instead of just isolation.
For the Boomers to even have a chance they pretty much have to play perfect and stick to there man as there were a lot of players open for Russia. If only we had Bogut because inside we don't look as athletic. Oh well, maybe we could attack them with a barrage of three's as everyone seems to be shooting well lately.

Agree Jacob, there has been some high quality basketball at this olympics, international B'ball is very good to watch even without the blake griffin dunks (although i would still like to see that) Lithuania vs France the other day was testament to that. 1 on 1 or isolation basketball gets boring quickly, seeing great basketball going through several sets of hands on offense and being creative like Spain is an entertaining affair to watch (to quote John Casey).

i dont worry match up on Lebron unless FIBA will impose an ala NBA 3 second defensive rule on the game day. we are in Olympics

Agree - much rather watch team ball than iso plays.

Re what u did after the shot went in.

Smashed my hand on the table (watching online) screamed out fuck yeah!

Then had to apologise to kids and get the silent treatment fro the wife!

Still though FUCK YEAH!!!!

Not recalling us beating Russia in a major tourny before?

Vaguely recall us beating them in the late 80's in Sydney when they brought a very good team and Keogh got Marcioulonis smashed the night before???

We beat them 95-80 in Beijing and 75-71 in Sydney.

Good call above paul about our next window of 2014 WC and 2016 OG. I think it's definitely exciting times ahead.

BA should give Brett Brown and four year extension right now. I've never seen an Australian team defend and compete like these guys have. Yes, they've had some offensive struggles, but they can be overcome with more work and an injection of fresh talent. Bogut and Jawai can definitely provide us with the low-post presence we've lacked this games, and they are both a significant upgrade over Maric, who for mine has been our most dissapointing player (I don't like to criticise the guys, but there's no point hiding from it either). You mentioned Markovic and Bruce as well. I think had Brett Brown forseen Delly moving into the starting line-up, he probably would have liked to have another pure point guard to bring off the bench. For all of Brett's great coaching, I thought we've struggled when Delly has gone to the bench and we've shifted Patty to the one spot. If you want Patty to play shooting guard, then play him there exclusively, don't make him chop and change it seems to have taken him out of his rhythm at times. And don't forget about the next generation, Exum and Simmons. Two years is a long time for these guys, and they could both be knocking on the door by the 2014 World Cup, and I would expect both guys to certainly be Olympians come 2016.

Until yesterday I would have said a new coach for sure. We actually played a promising style against Russia, but it wasnt a full-on game. I guess I am a little undecided but leaning towards Beveridge.

Whichever way, we need a coach who will have us playing with confidence all the time and not encouraging Mills to take 20 shots a game. Ride him when he is hot, go to something else when he is not.

Unsung hero of the Mills game-winner for mine (besides Mills, obviously, and Ingles for the pass) was Dellavedova for the awesome moving pick to get Mills open. It gets better with repeated viewing.

Good call Bo - that was a man-size screen by Delly. That kid never takes a backward step, I love it!

paul, why do you think Beveridge would be an upgrade over Brown? From the outside looking in, they both appear to be heavily focused towards the defensive end of the floor, and making sure their teams are in peak physical shape to be able to run and compete for the full 40 minutes. Perhaps Beveridge is the ideal guy to take over should Brown not want the job, but I wouldn't neccessarily be looking to replace Brown with Beveridge.

I'd like to see Baynes in there over the next 4 years - he's had a good tournament.

Vart, I think Beveridge gets his team to play to their preferred style very consistently, he has coached many of the players in our top 20, and his team's have better offensive flow than Brown. His reactionary type offence is run successfully on the international stage and is very hard to guard, especially with the amount of ball movement Beveridge insists on.

Fair enough paul. I'll have to take your word on it. Perhaps he may be able to join the panel as an assistant to help out with the offensive side of things?