The Boomers should win this one comfortably if they play smart.
Australia by 14.

Playing it safe with margin boomers by 13.

Should they rest Baynes for this game?

Baynes was just cramp.

I love the optimism "I wouldn't waste him against lithuania we aren't going to beat them anyway" etc.

We weren't meant to beat Russia at the last olympics, we did.

We werent meant to be Lithuania the tourny beforehand. Did.. by 30 plus points.

Australia are a funny team like that. We win what we should lose, and lose what we should win.

When is this game on TV

Thanks Anon

Really need to smash Korea get some more confidence in the boys! Hopefully bubbles gets some more minutes!

Anonymous. Yes, I do realise that. Both games were the last game of pool play, correct? I don't believe that teams of the calibre of Russia and Lithuania decide to play 'half assed' and not try for ANY game. They are still noteworthy wins.

Agree with you Benno. It is all about confidence and getting a run going. We need to get Bairstow, Gibson and Goulding involved as much as possible tonight. Every player in the 12 is required. Although have we written off Jawai?

@AussiePride Jawai should be cheering from the stands! What were we honestly thinking though? he isn't even close to being 100% heck id be surprised if he was even 70% fit

I wouldn't say Gibsons been useless. When they sub Delly off for Gibbo the standard of play didn't exactly dip. Thats not to say that Gibbo is as good as Delly.. Just that he is adequate in spots.

I thought gibson came in and controlled the tempo quite well last night. Delly was all over the shop while gibson was really poised!

The bagging of Gibson is ridiculous. In the past he hasn't performed well, but anyone watching closely can see he has developed his all-around game the past two years at Adelaide.

When he comes on the floor he gets the ball moving and most importantly he gets the ball to the post. I'd love to see a stat on low post touches when Gibbo is on the floor.

On Saturday he had an open three but waited, directed Baynes to post up, fed him the ball and then Motum gets an and-one from the resulting double team. Quality point guard play and he's been solid through the whole tour.

I don't have a problem with people who question his play in previous years, but he deserves to be judged on what he is doing this year, good or bad.

The quick Korean guards will be a test for him tonight, that's for sure.

I am at the tournament so can try to answer any questions that are not covered on the ABC coverage back home.

What's the atmosphere like at Gran Canaria?

Just over 1 hr until game time. Tune into Ch22 now for Double Dribble.

Atmosphere is pretty good. Slovenia had plenty of fans and the locals are right behind Australia thanks to Brad Newley.

Newley hit a three yesterday and the court announcer called it for Dellavedova, and a couple of local journos sitting next to me went ape until it was corrected!

does anyone know where the game will be streamed?

Livebasketball.tv.

Streams working well tonight

was hoping for a free one

Do a search for basketball live streaming, who knows what you might find?!

thanks. yeah, havent found 1 yet, but maybe in 5 min something will come up...

"there's the man that killed us last night, Goran Drakovic"

Nice one Phil Smyth...



And agree Paul: Gibson has been terrible in the past for Aus but since that first warm-up game he has been nothing but solid and the jitters of the past are nowhere to be found. Knows where to get the ball.

Man, Delly needs to leave those floaters in Cleveland. He's throwing them up over guys he has a size advantage over...

They need a translator for one of their starting 5 players (Moon).

Also... Broekhoff has a very nice shot on him. Started hot last night and again today.

Australia playing way too safe early inside. Bigs looking to kick out at the first opportunity when their initial move doesn't produce a look, instead of going to a counter.

Yeah Baynes is playing this world cup like a "contract year".

It's great for us because he's got a mean streak that no one else really has.

Also, can someone confirm or deny whether Cam Bairstow's blonde streaks in his hair are natural or salon-added...because it's going to make a big difference between whether I can get behind him or throw him into the David Anderson basket.

The ladder... 2 points for a win, 1 for playing?
Why not just give a point for the win?

Half time commentators mentioned James Harden plus great defence....... Is that a joke or????

Korean coach has his duds on, this could get ugly!

Nathan Jawai looks like he's some kind of extracurricular team employee or a retired, bloated, ex-player assistant coach on the bench over there...

Get that man on a treadmill if he's not gonna see any burn.

@ballislife:

Same commentators also said earlier, "Australia is bringing a really small team to this year's world cup. They will really be missing the size that they normally bring to these tournaments..."

Maybe that's why Goran Drakovic killed us last night...? We had no rim-protection...

Man we are so awful at making simple, effective passes in situations where we have a numbers advantage, whether in an isolated portion of the floor in the half court (say a big is double teamed and a baseline cutter whose defender got sucked to the big is wide open heading towards the rim) or a simple 3-on-2 fast break.

Good teams make you pay for that because they're the easiest baskets you're going to get all night and we turn those gimmies into turnovers as often as we score off them.

Chris Goulding: I love everything about your whole wacky scene -- the same way I love everything about Swaggy P -- but please don't ever do a 360 degree turn when you are defending a ball carrier in the backcourt.

The South Koreans wont make you pay, because they really aren't very good at playing basketball, but if you do that against anyone else they're going to put you in a youtube clip that you will never be able to get rid of.

This is under 12s shit. Come on.

Most NBL players will burn you if you pull that crap.

Nate Jawai's passing from the post is just pretty to watch. Such a shame he may not earn himself meaningful minutes during the tournament.

So happy to see Exum finish a fast break. I was losing faith in him after his second quarter piss-weak layup attempt (that was comprehensively denied).

Nice finds underneath by Exum leading to easy buckets for the bigs.

Exum is terrible. Not sure what anyone sees in him at all....

Good to see us dominate comprehensively, but there's not much you can really take from beating a team that might struggle to win a game in the NBL...

It's pretty worrying that their big guy pretty much blocked every Australian player at one point or another. We have to finish with more aggression. Guys have to want to put people on posters, and i'm not seeing that nasty streak that you need to beat those top teams. You gotta make people scared to challenge you.

Great to see Outback Shaw testing the springs....

Shaq that should be....

Nice to get some of the rotation guys some minutes.

Phil Smythe really has no idea what he is talking about, like, at all.

"All of these guys play MAJOR MINUTES at their respective club levels so it's really going to take a while for them to adjust to playing smaller roles in this boomers team..."

Meanwhile in reality land, all of our go-to guys are role players on their club teams, and the big adjustment is the exact opposite: we have guys who are used to playing conservatively in small minutes at the club level who are now thrust into high-usage positions and need to take uncharacteristic risks in order to eke out efficiency through aggression in unfamiliar starring roles.

Goran Drakovic...

@24, Exum is v young still. Lots of potential. He's quick. Needs to improve, but should do.


Jawai was ok offensively, but too slow in D...


I wasnt watching ABC. Very funny to hear they were saying Harden plays D lol (although I see he snared a few steals in game 1, was prob cause he'd lost his own man haha)


Not much we can take from this Korea game IMO. Gee, Korea were not good. Hopefully its a confidence booster for some players, but I reckon they'll have to play more solid against better teams.

Good to get a win.

One area that may be overlooked is the lack of 3pt attempts by the Boomers in these two games. i think it will hinder the boomers if the boomers good shooters aren't utilised on offence. Perhaps it's a focus on interior offence or a lack of ability to get shooters open but the Boomers have averaged just 13.5 shot attempts from 3 so far whereas most good teams (Lithuania, argentina, slovenia, spain, france etc) are averaging between 20-24 3 point shot attempts per game so far at this WC.those 7+ shot attempts will make a big difference.

Australia has shoot the ball well from 3 but they don't seem to be able to make getting good shooters good looks part of the offence, but they will need to find ways to get Broekhoff and Goulding looks if they are to seriously contend at this WC.

Lance on the money. Broekhoff seems like he's getting shots off unorganized kickouts and breakdowns and nothing more. Let's have him run off a few screens and actually feature him as a legit threat. Not gonna beat anyone of note without scoring big from deep. 13 attempts from 3 makes it really hard on ourselves.

You make a good point, Lance. Lemanis has placed emphases on penetration in transition, getting through their sets, then penetration in late shot clock situations in an attempt to flush out ill-advised jumpshots. 'Shot selection' is key.

The theory is sound, but you can tell guys like Ingles, Newley and to some extent Delly are hesitant to bomb away for fear of going outside the team's philosophy.

Knowing which shots the coach wants you to take can only come with consistent emphasis. Given this is just the beginning of Lenanis's tenure, in-game passiveness is understandable, but not desirable given the need for immediate results.

I should clarify: Lemanis isn't against shooting threes. But the expected point value of a partially contested three pointers - particularly in transition - are low, and inhibit the offenses ability to draw fouls, force the defense to help and recover etc.

E.g. open threes 8-16 seconds into the shot clock from someone like Broekhoff is a darn good shot.

Big win by the Boomers.

Recap now available on PnR, including Video of Ingles 5-points in just a few seconds.

2014 FIBA World Cup: Korea prove no match for the Boomers

The Australian Boomers have defeated Korea 89-55, a much need morale-boosting win in their second match of the 2014 FIBA World Cup. With this victory, they look to get their campaign back on track after dropping their first match of the tournament. Forward Joe Ingles took it to Korea early in the match and would lead the Boomers with 17 points on 7/8 shooting, while Aron Baynes again contributed with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

The Boomers sorely lack discipline in many very basic areas, such as boxing out, defensive intensity and offensive identity. The Slovenian coach was right when he said the Australian offence plays without purpose. Against Korea we should have been clinically exploiting mismatches from buzzer to buzzer and defensively, Korea should never have been able to amount a charge at us - but they did, multiple times. So while Lemanis is standing there, big grin on his face, happy with the effort of the guys, I think a better coach would have been disappointed by the way they played. Both teams played terribly, but it just so happens Australia on sheer personal talent and size alone are insurmountably better than Korea. The scoreline looks nice, but I feel we could have doubled it if we had any clue what we are doing on either end of the floor. I am worried for the remainder of the tournament - a Boomers team that plays this way will NOT get anywhere near a medal.

Its not about 'respect', this is about how Australia SHOULD be playing. No offence to Korea.. but they are not a team that should be giving us trouble even for a quarter. They are a team that would struggle to win in the NBL on a good day, and thats just what it is. They are a country that hasn't seen much competition, and with more of it eventually they will rise up, but no.. Korea shouldn't trouble Australia any more than the lowest ranking SEABL team should. The fact that we had a few issues with them should be seen as concerning.

we rested our best players, ran the bench. while we even manufactured something so our worst player,at this game could get one in at the end, so that everyone scored.

Did anyone else find it strange that in the time Jawai was on the court he constantly established post position about three feet from the basket but nobody ever passed it in. I can only remember him getting it on one post up.

Also was it just me but the Korean's ran a simple screen at the top of the key about one hundred times and every time they got an open three. The Australian's were never able to fight around the screen or more simply just switch defenders to cover the three.

As a comparison Russia beat a very similar Korean team by 35 at the 2012 OQTbefore going on to win bronze in London. Some people are being too picky, Korea play an unorthodox style and make it scrappy, the Boomers took care of business and now move on to Lithuania.

Sanity will prevail...