We are certainly capable of winning if our offence clicks and we don't allow easy 3s. Unfortunately our defence has struggled against weaker perimeter systems and shooters than Lithuania possess so the odds are against us.

Literally anything could happen, we can win.. but we would be a bit of an underdog. A win would really make my day. And if we have to drop our last game in the pool play to get third and play all of our bench a lot.. so be it. But right now, the fight is still on for first.

Yep, their shooters are deadly, we need Baynes and Bairstow to lock down defensively so we don't have to get into rotations on post feeds.

We need to defend the PnR better, and generally play better team D.

Thinking we may even need to mix it up more frequently at the defensive end to disrupt Lithuania as much as possible.

I reckon Montiejunas could be a back breaker for us. Our bigs with enough size to play him in the paint don't leave the key and his ability to drift out to the 3pt line could hurt us

Lithuania by 17. Hope I'm wrong, but I'm yet to see signs that this team can effectively defend and execute offensively against the higher end Euro teams at key times in games. Perhaps a bit harsh ? Anyhow, am hoping for an improved performance than seen against Dragic and Co, as part of a build towards a more poised performance in QF's.

LC, can you please change the order of teams around if you want the 2014 World Cup at the start, otherwise all WC threads look the same on the sideboard.

Done

Recap of Group D proceeding so far plus a preview of tonight's big game.

2014 FIBA World Cup: Group D is still anyone's ball game

You're a good man!

**** yeah!

They just have to go for it ....it's a thing of beauty at the moment.

30+ point 1st qtr!

He is a role player ....Baynes need to keep it rolling

Yep, Ingles and Baynes doing it for the Boomers. Aussies actually pulling off a decent press.

Just need Della & Dr Brock to start dropping the treys

We are getting value for our fouls too.

C'mon Gibbo - tee off

Yep ...time for Outback Hack

Call the fire dept .....We are officially on fire

Yeah Boys!

Great first half. Giving up some easy buckets, but I'll take it when we force turnovers at that rate. Settled for some pretty ordinary shots in the half-court as the half wore on. Like to see us keep getting the ball inside earlier in the shot-clock.

OMG

WOW . What a first half. Wasn't expecting a 19 pt lead in our favour at the half .

INGLES YOU ARE C-L-U-T-C-H!!!

I'm just loving Lemanis's vision of Australian basketball coming to fruition. Possibly the best game I've ever watched.

At least we know now what we are capable of! Could have even punished them further there.

So Lithuania is losing on purpose so they don't finish 2nd, there I said it.

Take Andresen off PLLEEEASE !!

Anderson didn't get the memo that he wasn't to take a shot this half!

Only positive is we're still ahead. Horrible, horrible, horrible quarter.

Well settled

Baynes definitley lost it. Someone just needs to tell him that it was a fair call and get him to forget it.

Baynes is being a big sook. Clear charge and he's costing the team with his tantrum. Also we're weak all over in the 4 spot

The pendulum has swung to the Lithuanians way... including the refereeing!

I'd rather be 6 up than 6 down.

Baynes needs to put the team first here

Lithuanian chicks in crowd are serious 10/10s

Down to the wire

Be smart and we win

Stupid by Baynes...selfish foul

Most shocking block call I have ever seen

Went straight through a stationary boomer

Great win

One of our finest

Great job by the Boomers to hold on there. The momentum had really swung, affecting the refereeing too, but they held on with a solid finish to the game.

If Lithuania want to tank to finish 3rd so be it. Feels great to beat Lithuania in a game with meaning.

Fantastic Victory. Loved Jawai, Ingles, Newley and Baynes but saw too much of Anderson (Did hit a couple of clutch shots but stagnates the offence) and too many Delly floaters.

Anybody know the tiebreaker rules if it is a three way tie at the top of the group?

Great game from the Boomers! Good coaching from Lemanis also inserting Newley and Jawai at the right times. Also a solid strategy playing the full court press against their weakened backcourt. Our ability to force turnovers was phenomenal.

Three quick points:

- Motum was horrible. Seriously.
- Unless Ingles was gassed, I can't for the life of me understand why we were so reliant on Delly in the third. He just doesn't have the handle or quicks to really make plays when the D is up in his face. Joe needed to touch the ball more than twice in that five minute stretch coming out of half time.
- Our half court D is just horrible. We stink defending the PnR, our rotations are bad and only Jawai seems capable of being a defensive presence in the middle.

If anyone is within arms reach of the moron anonymous who claimed Lithuania tanked todays game.. please give him a hearty slap across the back of the head.

Lithuania was undefeated leading to this, surely you realise they could have finished first? First is of more benefit then third you F0----- MORON!

Always has to be some clown trying to take away an achievement. Australia won that game fair and square, and don't doubt for a moment that Lithuania threw everything at it!

"Good win. Our play in the first half is the best i've ever seen from The Boomers. Lithuania had no answer."

Absolutely. That is pretty much my favourite Boomers game of all time.

The first half was Aussie-style basketball at its finest, and the effort to hang on through a fierce storm in front of a deafening opposition crowd was awesome.

It feels so nice, after years of losing to European powers playing their style, to beat one playing our way (which we also did to an extent v Russia in 08 but its been a rare feeling).

This might now mean we get second in the group, but I'll take that in return for enjoying this win!

Don't go planning for USA just yet. I don't know why everyone is so quick to call out positions, number one is still up for grabs for anyone out of AUS, LITH and Slovenia so keep your pants on!

Does anyone know the tie breaker rules for this?

Great game. Looked very shaken to open the second half but steadied soon enough. Thought Delly was uncharacteristically shaken when he's normally so measured.

Korea beating Slovenia at the moment for what it's worth. Not that it would really help us avoid second, but might open the door slightly if they could pull of a miracle.

I don't undertand this talk. we can definitely avoid second?

If Australia beat Mexico and Angola, which they should, and Slovenia and Lithuania both finish at 4-1 with us, we will finish 2nd regardless of how much Lithuania wins by. Which is a shame, because I would have liked to watch their game with my fingers crossed that Lithuania win by x number of points.

Our differential against both of them is -3, Slovenia is currently +10 and Lithuania is currently -7. If we belted Lithuania a bit more or got closer to Slovenia, we could have been in the running for 1st. Our fadeout against Slovenia is coming back to haunt us.

Maybe we can hope that there is an upset somewhere along the line (Slovenia or Lithuania lose their next match). That way 1st is still in reach.

Arrrgh! Slept through my alarm and missed the game! What a time to do that?!!!

Wow - what a win! Go Boomers!

Oops, I mean Slovenia losing their next match. Lithuania's next match doesn't mean anything to us.

Recap of the game now up on PnR thanks to Craig Rayner:

2014 FIBA World Cup: Boomers take down Lithuanian giants

Australia has secured a major victory in their 2014 FIBA World Cup campaign defeating the much fancied Lithuania 82-75 in Group D. The Boomers were able to put together easily their best performance on both ends of the floor for the entire match and managed to withstand various runs by the Lithuanians prevailing on the back of 18 points from Joe Ingles.

Cobra; So in a tie at the end of the group stage, point differential is only measured between the tied teams?
2 teams tied, you go to the head to head result, I understand but I thought overall plus/minus from all group games would be the decider.
'Coz if that's the case, yeah that sucks all the fun out of the Lithuania/Slovenia game.

If Lithuania win by 9-12 the Lithuania 1st, Slovenia 2nd, Australia 3rd.
13 pt victory would send it into a % tiebreak between Aust and Slovenia for 2nd.
14+ pt win by Lithuania would put aust 2nd, Slovenia 3rd.

If Lithuania win by 4 points it would be a % tie with aust and lith to determine 2nd and 3rd.


If Lithuania win by 5,6,7,8 points then Slovenia finish 1st, Lithuania 2nd, Australia 3rd.

If Lithuania win by 1,2,3 points then Australia finishes 2nd and Lithuania 3rd.

If Lithuania lose to Slovenia, Australia likely to finish 2nd.

The only variable is Australia losing to mexico by 2 to 10 points, and the forcing Lithuania to have to beat Slovenia in the final game to take 1st place rather then 2nd, Australia 3rd, mexico 4th. The downside would be if Slovenia beat lithuania then Aust would drop to 4th.

Lithuania were definitely holding back their best players until the final quarter when they coach went for the win. They have a firm grip on controlling where they finish now.

If all other games go as expected and Australia, Lithuania and Slovenia tie here are your scenarios:
Lithuania defeat Slovenia by more than 13 points.
1. Lithuania
2. Australia
3. Slovenia
Lithuania defeat Slovenia by between 9 and 13
1. Lithuania
2. Slovenia
3. Australia
Lithuania defeat Slovenia by between 4 and 8
1. Slovenia
2. Lithuania
3. Australia
Lithuania defeat Slovenia by less than 4 or lose
1. Slovenia
2. Australia
3. Lithuania

So by my reckoning we want Lithuania to win by between 4 and 13 points to get us to 3rd

I'm watching the game on iView. Pretty impressive full court D in the 1st quarter.

Intentionally dropping games is a bad idea unless you already know what all of the other results are going to be.

There were suggestions that we tank the Lithuania game but it is way too early in the tournament with a myriad of possibilities available yet. This includes Mexico defeating one of the top 3. If we get to the last game and we have to play our bench the full game and give Anderson the ball in the post every play then so be it.

As a 36ers fan who thinks Gibbo often coasts, it was interesting to see him play with intensity when he was coming off the bench in patches rather than playing the majority of a game.

"Lithuania were definitely holding back their best players until the final quarter when they coach went for the win. They have a firm grip on controlling where they finish now."

I think they had bigs off because they were trying to find an answer to Australia's pressure, which they did in the third quarter (not the fourth).

I hate all this talk of "intentionally dropping" a game. I don't care how "smart" it is. When you pull on the singlet and represent your country you should be playing to win.

They should print out a bracket and let the teams with the best results choose first for which position in that bracket they play. Top team (points and differential) takes the top slot. 2nd best team will presumably choose the top slot that means they won't play the top team until the final. If teams are all scared of one particular team then they should play hard every game so have they have the best chance of avoiding that team for longer. Gives every team incentive to play hard in every pool game.

^that was me

Anon #491410: Which is why I followed up my objection to throwing games with an alternative tournament seeding method that would not reward throwing games.

Jawai was setting picks, sucking in rebounds on O&D disrupting there offense with his paint presence, scored some put backs........then gets subbed out while he's on s roll.
When he's hooping like that keep him on, he had fresh legs and needs more game time for the next round and frankly was playing better than Anderson in that game.
Motum & Bairstow seemed to foul too much.
Very impressed again with broekhoff.
Great attack by Newlley.
Jingles was great.

Good win & great confidence boost.
Lets keep our offensive composure next time teams pick up there defensive intensity.

I bet that Lithuanian guy that ran into a Jawai pick late in the 3rd quarter is still hurting!!

Great win. Up there with the Russian upset for recent great Boomers wins that I've seen.

The positives were all pretty obvious: great disruptive defense and pressure on passing lanes, Baynes dominating early which freed up looks for our perimeter guys, and great execution on the fast break to capitalise off turnovers.

The halfcourt offense and defense is still a big concern for me though, so we either need to figure out how to keep that pace up all game or have a contingency.

Pressing like that works against teams whose starting Point Guard went down to injury days out from the Cup, but will it work against teams with better depth & talent at the position?

Our one-on-one ball containment remains woeful as well. James Harden-esque. I'm looking at you: Delly, Exum, Anderson, Ingles.

Good to see that the team defense has drastically improved though.

If I were an opposing coach I'd be going base level against the Boomers: isolation high every time and making our slow footed guards pay. Gibson, Exum and Delly cannot stay in front of anyone in the halfcourt in isolation.

And let's put the idea of Dave Anderson as a power forward to bed please. Dribble blow bys all night long by the younger, quicker, more athletic guys he has to guard.

Also: what is wrong with Delly? He looks like a shell out there.

"he had fresh legs"

Nate didn't have fresh legs, he was blowing hard. He did an awesome job though, 5r in 6mins.

So far this tournament we have forced 60 turnovers in three games (while only giving up 33 assists), outstanding effort from the pressure defence.

Delly and Gibson are doing a super job harassing the ball-handler and the likes of Newley, Ingles and Broekhoff are very dangerous in the passing lanes.

Disclaimer: yes I am a massive Delly fan. I'm not saying he's looking awesome, but its also understandable.

I imagine Delly hit the rookie wall a while ago. He's played 72 NBA games, 5 summer league games, the 9 warm up games, and now 3 world champs games since last November. Its his first year as a pro, and its worn him down.

He's also being given a massive workload for the Boomers. He gets the toughest defensive assignment on the perimeter. Even when we are leading big he gets subbed back in because the rest of our guards have been so shaky advancing the ball up the court and initiating the offense (its one of the other reasons we're missing Patty). let's face it, if its not Delly or Ingles starting the offense we look significantly worse. I'm not surprised his legs look gone when it comes to looking for his own offense.

Great to see Ingles play with confidence. Not too sure if this link had been posted via ESPN http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=marc-stein&id=2964

Yeah Harry Balls, we can only finish 1st if Slovenia lose to Angola and then Lithuania beat them. If we end up in a tie with Slovenia (2 way or 3 way tie), we can't get past them.

It is goal percentage against the teams you are tied with that will split the 3 teams, as it would be 1-1 for all 3 of us.

Lithuania aren't going to throw the Slovenia game, they can still get 1st. The higher the score is, the more they need to win by because it is goal percentage, not For and Against.

Best example would be the 2010 World Championships when China finished on 1-4 but qualified 4th due to the tiebreaker with Puerto Rico and Ivory Coast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIBA_World_Championship_Group_C

sorry, we can get past Slovenia in a 3 way tie, but Lithuania will pass us as a result.

In other words, let's cheer on Angola!

http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/FIBA/ruleRegu/p/openNodeIDs/897/selNodeID/897/baskOffiRule.html

Cobra: Section D of FIBA's official rules 2014 disagrees with you. It's goal difference, not goal percentage.


"D.1.3
If 2 or more teams have the same win-loss record of all games in the group, the game(s) between these 2 or more teams shall decide on the classification. If the 2 or more teams have the same win-loss record of the games between them, further criteria will be applied in the following order:
* Higher goal difference in the games between them
* Higher number of goals scored in the games between them
* Higher goal difference of all games in the group
* Higher number of goals scored in all games in the group
If these criteria still cannot decide, a draw shall decide on the classification."

Beating the USA in the quarter finals will give us a very favourable standing for the semis! (We won't have to play Spain to the GF!)

Yes Naph, I don't like the way they use the term goal. They obviously want to differentiate it from points because that is the term they use for ranking in the table. I think it actually makes it more confusing. And I am still assuming goal means points in this document.

Call me cray cray but if the Boomers did happen to have to front up to the USA in the Quarters, I think it would be a lot closer than people expect. I would pick an 8-12 point margin in all honestly, maybe 15

Naph,

The way teams are classified has changed to goal difference from goal percentage from October 2014. The current method (goal percentage) is in use for the Men's World Cup and Women's World Champs. Even so, we can't get past Slovenia in a 3 way tie.

Of course the defensive strategy was a winner but from an offensive point of view it seems like we are on to some reasonable combinations so good coaching by Lemanis. There was a bit of a worry that we'd be able to find much offense in this tournament but with of course Ingles and now Newley coming off the bench and the emergence of Broekhoff it's been reassuring. I'd imagine in the next couple of games Motum and Bairstow will have some scoring moments. They were both gifted scorers in college so have ability. Really hope Nate keeps it going and improves condition by the game because he really was an impressive spark in those minutes. He is a smart player on court.

Great win by Australia, the first half was the best half I have seen by them in a long time.

Just a couple of questions which I would like opinions on.

I love Delly but it seems he has trouble creating anything when he goes left. Is this a genuine issue or just a minor blip?

When Jawai came on he made a positive difference but seemed to reluctant to look for his own shot. A couple of times he seemed to have a mismatch but instead of trying a move he simply kicked it back out. Again is this a genuine issue or just something from lack of confidence/playing time?

Looking forward to seeing Motum, Bairstow etc put up some points in next game or two.

Ariel 98, yes you are correct.

Regardless of which tie breaker is used, we can't pass both of them unless Slovenia loses to Angola.

sick of hearing this, they clearly wanted to win! but lithuania had to adapt to our game style.. so they didnt use their bigs as much as it was hard enough getting the ball across the court!

Depending on other results, I would happily drop the Angola game if it meant coming 3rd. Just play our bench and practice for our most likely crossover opponent.

Not sure that we would be too worried about who we will meet up with in the round of 16. We would start favourite against all of them, except perhaps Turkey (who are having a poor tournament).

Of course any of those teams could beat us on any given night. We dropped a game to Finland in the lead up, but we erased that with two other convincing wins.

That quarter final matchup will be key, but even if we tank to come third, we will probably end up facing Slovenia or Lithuania again, which we are no guarantee to win.

Ingles had patches where he was unstoppable and only needs to better understand 'those moments' himself.

D1 and D3 will stave off playing USA til the Semi Final

D2 and D4 cross over at 1/4 final stage.

Group finishing is the difference between finishing potentially top 4 or top 8

Respected basketball nations do tank, it's a fact.

Lithuania will be playing to win against Slovenia, because if they win by nine or more (I think) they get top spot.

However, if they aren't going to win by a big margin I would expect them to manage the game so they lose or win by three or less to make sure they don't get second.

If they win by between 9-12 (I think) we would drop to third, so that would be a nice result for us.

We didn't have an opportunity to manage our position in the last two Olympics because we lost our opening two games.

amusing boomers warmup - joe ingles with red towel, wipes sweat off arms, legs, hands, then stuffs towel up inside his singlet and wipes more sweat off.

Throws towel to Jawai who then wipes his face and head.

There is a certain,m very disrespectful anonymous who needs a smack in the mouth. Why would we tank the lith game and go 1 win 2 losses? moronic!

We can still finish 1st or 3rd really.. so get over your bullshit wanker

Could have lost, then won last 2 games to finish 3-2 and 3rd place. Almost impossible to finish 1st.

Mexico will be tough to beat. Angola getting a little beat up now.

My question is.. would we drop the Angola game to go third or are we too morally superior to lower ourselves to such euro tactics?

if lith lose then we still finish 2nd even if we lost to angola

I don't see Lithuania losing to slovenia, or anyone else in the group. Slovenia and Lithuania would probably finish 4-1 and if we tank against Angola.. we would be 3rd place.

Play it win always.

considering a huge part of this tournament is about our young team's progress as a national team i would take the winning at all costs approach and the confidence that gives them rather than roll the dice on trying to manipulate where we finish. hate to lose then finish where we dont want to anyway. i say let the aussies establish themselves as a fearsome unit that no-one wants to face , even if it means going up against usa , we challenge them for as long as we can until their talent wins through and in a few years when all our young kids are a few years older and guys like simmons come into the side they come into a side that is proud, and fights every game.

I would prefer to medal now than go down in a rain of gunfire against the US.

losing in the group stage doesnt get us closer to a medal. it just maybe avoids the usa. and then we go up against a france/brazil whoever it is. what have we gained? ill take wins where we can.

lol also agree lith girls are hotties , was there recently and the men look , well like the lithuanian mens team lol , and the girls are all tall leggy hotties. my gf is litho , boy did i have a smug look on my face all game long haha.

Further to my earlier comment, some forums/media content I have read from the USA suggests the team better come to play against AUS or LTH.

Hence, I think the Boomers are well respected. The general feeling I see from USA is that they know they have a beatable team and if they go to sleep one game, it could be all over red rover(surprising given they are always super confident).

I am a Kiwi. You guys are undervaluing your team. I truly believe you are one of the few teams at this tournament with balance at each position (bar maybe a traditional SG somewhat). I do believe the Boomers would be very competitive against the USA.

Re: the (always present) Bogut issue. Get over it. Baynes is here and he is probably doing just as well if not better than what Bogut would be doing.

Lithuania are referred to as a "powerhouse of International basketball" and rightly so, they have established themselves amongst the best over the past 12 -15 years.

Irrespective of where the Boomers end up, the experience will be valuable for the younger players who walked off the court knowing they just beat one of the best teams in the world.

The next generation of Boomers need to experience success like last night, and continue to back it up if they are to develop their own "powerhouse" reputation in the future. Skill gets you so far, self belief makes all the difference.