What time is this televised live?

3:30am Sunday.

Defeat Turkey = play Lithuania again. Defeat Lithuania = USA semi.

If we're getting ahead of ourselves we can potentially play off for bronze.

wonder if asik will slow down baynes' red hot form...

Can only think about Turkey now. The pool play is over and we have avoided USA which is what we wanted.
Time to move on. One game at a time.

great job by boomers coaching staff with a
'best case scenario' working out.

Lemanis and co have given the Boomers a realistic chance to advance.

Whatever Ben Simmons!

"Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things"

maybe this attitude is why he's not there !

Who is Ben Simmons?

I wonder if the same people complaining about the Boomers game last night and vowing to no longer support them will jump back on the bandwagon if the Boomers somehow make it to the final four.
Much like Cleveland fans now that LeBron is back.

Lol @ Steven..........Nice way to have a crack at Cavs "fans" in this thread.
Genius.

I don't like it but FIBA need to look at their pool classification and ranking system if they don't like it. They have simply provided too much incentive for teams to do the wrong thing.

The ranking is entirely based on finishing position, and not who you beat. It is also modified by an event weighting that ensures that Australia's and New Zealand's maximum possible points is 180 points lower than any European team. Australia or NZ winning the Oceania championships 4 times in a ranking cycle earns them 20 points. Which is the equivalent of a European team finishing 14th in the Eurobasket 4 times in a row.

Finishing 4th at a world champs is worth 75 points for the next 4 years. Finishing 8th is worth 55 points. Finishing 16th is worth 15 points.

Of course teams are going to jockey for position. Your ranking influences your pools at future World Champs and Olympics.

tanking means trying not to win. resting key players is legit. anyone who watched the game last night saw that the players WERE TRYING TO WIN!! get over it and support your team.

Spot on Pete Mac the hysteria has been amazing over resting our players to prepare for the games that matter. They were playing their 5th game in 6 nights so it was a smart move.

Ben Simmons has been showing some immaturity via social media this last week in particular in relation to the Boomers team. He needs to be told to tone it down.

I wonder what the conversation would be if Baynes HAD played and twisted his ankle......think about that
you morons!!

I sense sour grapes from Ben Simmons .. He needs to consider what he says or he might become maligned from the Boomers programme

last anon - you must have been watching a different game !!

Australian basketball: bringing new meaning to "the hubris of the defeated".

Move on boys !!!!! In the race for a medal and done nothing that any of the teams may have down along the way if necessary..... So what… No money changed hands and US have a massive advantage over everyone. … If Aussies are the ones to beat them then everyone int he cup will be grateful….

The tanking happened. Lets move on from it.

I want to know, what is the best strategy against Turkey? They have been a bit 'up and down' during this tournament. What are their strengths/weaknesses and how can we exploit that?

Anonymous.. we are talking about a team that New Zealand nearly beat... sure, they will be alright.. but they have been in the weakest pool at the cup and havem't exactly dominated. I don't think they will be walk overs but I also don't think they are on the level of lithuania/slovenia..

Re: "things I've learned from this fairweather forum in recent weeks

1- everyone said exum was so good and was going to be our superstar etc - clearly not ready or good enough at this level yet" etc etc

I hope our fair weather forum is wrong about Andersen but I am concerned it is getting a little late in the tournament!!

My issue is if it truly is a case that we tanked, which most people accept we did, and that 'everybody's doing it', and that 'it was expected', why was there a need by Lemanis to deny it?

Australia need to up the pace.

Turkey are a great defensive team that will get you in a grind and force you into submission (they did it against the US for a half).

Australia scored 80 points or more 4 out of the 5 pool games

Turkey never scored above 77 points in pool play (funnily enough they scored 76 points three games, 77 one game and 58 in another).

If Australia can put points on the board, Turkey won't be able to keep up. That's simply not their game.

Scared isn't the word. But strategy says that it's absolutely a better outcome to play the overwhelming favorite of our group of 8 teams in the final game, where losing that game still gets us into the bronze medal playoff, rather than playing them in the round of 8 and being out of the tournament.

If we do make it to the round of 4 (still a big if, but more of an if now, than it would have been), we will throw everything we have at USA. It's basically a free hit at that point with a fall back. We aren't good enough at basketball to be a legit chance at a medal, but putting ourselves in a position to finish top 4 rather than being guaranteed a top 8 at best finish, that's worth doing.

Can discussions on the Boomers v Angola game be kept to that or the Goran Dragic twitter comment threads please.

This thread about an entirely different game.

"Anonymous.. we are talking about a team that New Zealand nearly beat"

Teams that NZ have nearly beaten this year - Lithuania, Slovenia and Serbia (who they beat the second time). So Turkey are in good company.

Haven't watched the game yet just checked out the box score.

Questions? Motum v Angola looked great offensively, demanded David Andersen's mins but only 1 min for Australia??? (clearly no one was playing much d that Angola game)

Chris Goulding looks a much more dynamic and willing scorer than Broekhoff, but obviously Broekhoff has shot extremely well, buys into the system and is better defender, still after a very dominate offensive performance Goulding demanded some mins especially in a game that Broekhoff scored 5 points in 18 mins?

At this WC Exum hasn't looked quite like a pro but more of a talented HS basketball baller which is to be expected but at these knockout stages he should only be getting garbage mins if Australia up by 15 or more. instead played 10 mins for 0 points 0 assists. Shouldn't those mins go to Goulding or even Gibson?

Ingles shot well but clearly has still has a roll player mentality at these WC's as he shot only 5 attempts. Australia's half court offence against Angola (yes obviously they are not a defensive powerhouse) with Bairstow, Motum Goulding and Gibson looked better than the often no movement motion offence of getting to Baynes or Andersen and wait for a turnover. Bairstow and Motum were setting down screens to get goulding open who was money and Motum and Bairstow are very good pick n pop players but Lemanis seems unaware of this???

Why did Delly shoot 6 3pt attempts?? surely the offense works better when the PG is getting to the reliable shooters?

Absolutely shattered.

Missed FT's cost the Boomers dearly.

Recap now up on PnR including links to game highlights and Lemanis with Baynes at press conference- you even get to hear's Paul's question!

2014 FIBA World Cup: Turkey inflict heartache on the Boomers

The road to Rio starts now...

Anon #492359, you were spot on with that prediction, was always going to be a danger game and proved to be so.

Man we had so many chances to blow that out and I think Lemanis could have done better with his rotations in a couple of key sequences and then obviously he has no clue how to plan for pick & rolls but that's been the theme of our tournament. Even allowing for the fact we have no P&R coverage, with better in-game management to control momentum that could have easily been a 15 point victory.

Really hurts to lose to a team like that, direction and execution in how to defend the pick and roll allowed Gular to keep them in the game when we should have blown it out so many times. Why are our bigs switching onto PGs? Why do we go under every single screen when guarding shooters? Why do our PGs get pinned by picks so often?

There was that moment in the third when we were up 12 and with all the momentum going our way and Lemanis decided to rest Delly...as a result Gibson -- who looked timid out there tonight -- struggled to make any plays and we cost ourselves a chance at blowing it out to 18 or so and putting the clamps on them then and there. You get it out to a safe margin and THEN you rest Delly for 2 or 3 mins IMO.

Then right at the end, Bairstow was playing really well and he gets subbed out for Anderson who right away commits a stupid foul and puts them on the line, they make the first and get an O board on the second and got back in the
game.

The worst part is we would have almost certainly beat Lithuania.

I really don't think Lemanis is up to it at this level. In the NBL you don't have to deal with so many dynamic P&R players so he's not used to scheming for it. In today's game pick and roll defense is pretty much at the top of the priority list along with rim protection, and Lemanis has his guys doing all sorts of really stupid stuff at the top of the floor.

P&R coverages aside, Delly and Gibson really lack the footspeed to contain elite guards who like to get the rim, even in isolation, and then Exum has the speed but has no idea what he's doing.

I don't think you can be too thrilled about our World Cup campaign...you can never be happy about losing a knockout game to a team that you led all night, especially when we would have almost certainly beat Lithuania in the next match. Pretty abject failure that can't be understated, especially when the P&R coverage directive is what is killing us time and time again and it comes straight from the head coach.

Onwards to 2016 I guess...Mills should help when things stagnate, everyone else should be better, and Bogut will anchor the defense and help keep the offense moving with his elite passing.

Turkey did a great job of making our bigs become playmakers with the shotclock expiring too...resulted in lots of errant passes and bad shots.

Our guards have to realise that the bigs aren't going to be able to make those snap decisions with the shot clock expiring unless deep in the paint, and either make sure the pass is for an immediate look or else hold onto the ball and go yourself.

Didn't see him?

Baynes has lapses in court vision at times, especially at the end of shot clocks.

Bairstow was open too, and he's money from that little pocket, but Baynes just made the decision too late.

Damn that's disappointing. We've missed a good opp for a medal in this tournament. The good news is that we have a pretty good team already, with an unprecedented level of talent likely to bolster the team in the next few years. The bad news is our players still lack the killer instinct needed to finish off inferior opponents.

Our defence does need work, but I think our pick n roll problems are very fixable, especially once Exum improves his defence. What I did like was that Lemanis did a better job of playing to the strengths of our personnel: using our length to pressure teams up the floor; creating transition offence opps; attacking the basket more frequently instead of living and dying by the three (still not a team strength)

Overall I'm happy with the direction Lemanis is going. He has a few things to address before the Olympics, but I think we've seen some growth from what is a pretty young team really. With only Ando probly too old for our next campaign, these guys have gained valuable XP playing together for 6 weeks or so.

They only have themselves to blame for losing the game like that. You can't miss half your free throws and expect to knock out one of the better teams in the world. Just shocking.

So disappointing watching the ending and it lingers for a while clouding ones thought. Now that I have settled a little the truth of the matter is that this relatively young and inexperienced team with a rookie coach at international level was within a few made free throws or one missed contested 3 pointer at the death of a quarter final berth.

If either of those (far more likely statistically)circumstances occurred I think the team and coaching staff would be getting decent wraps right about now from us the punters.

Lemanis may be getting a bit of flack right now and I will admit I am still not sold on him. Looking at the team and the available talent for the championships it becomes pretty obvious that the coaching staff are working with decent mid level talent but mid level talent seriously lacking in special attributes. The only player in the team who can be considered to have a outstanding talent in one are may well be Broekhoff as a shooter. Most of the rest are solid all round players which is a credit to our development pathways.

Now let's look at what we don't have at present. We don't have a guard who can blow by his opponent and get to the rim. Exum may be this player but not yet. Ingles probably the best we have at present. We are not even close to have any lock down defenders. Gibson is as good as it gets in the back court and there is nothing resembling one in the front court. We have no shot blockers so is it any wonder that with no good on ball defensive players and no shot blockers we struggle to defend the P&R or protect the rim. Ingles is about the only player capable of creating their own shot Goulding maybe but he never hit the court).

So while Lemanis has copped a bit maybe he has done well to get this core of solid players only as far as they got. Just think Aron Baynes was/is our star player. No criticism but would you really expect a team with Baynes as you number one gun to challenge at a WC.

The more I think about now that my BP and heart rate have returned to more normal levels the more I thing we probably overachieved and Lemanis did a serviceable job by getting that W against Lithuania.

Mills, Bogut, and hopefully a rapidly developing Exum and Simmons and Goulding (who should have bypassed Newley in two years and can knock down free throws)should fill some of those holes. Would very much like to see Exum and Simmons turn out to be great defenders.

The problem though is what he is telling his guys to do when defending the pick & roll is just blatantly stupid: go under screens and then switch.

So either:

Lemanis has no idea how to defend pick and rolls at this level -> he has to go

or...

The guys have tuned him out and/or aren't being held accountable for not obeying coverages -> he has to go.

"Were never a chance to get a medal with the USA looming at the semi final stage if we could of got over Turkey and Lithuania."
The losers of the semis play off for the bronze medal.

Such a wasted opportunity when you consider how many depleted squads there were this year: Turkey without some key guys, Lithuania down a starting PG, France without their two best players, USA fielding their weakest team in a decade (they are looking very beatable...Australia would have been in with a puncher's chance....say 10%), Ginobili out for Argentina, getting the blind luck of starting in the weakest pool, etc. Sure, we were down two key guys, but we shouldn't have lost against Turkey so you can't really be proud with what they did today.

Really poor preparation too: we didn't face a single top 10 team in the friendlies leading up to this tournament, which is just plain stupid and can't have helped.

Mick, we played Lithuania and then France twice.

Still completely devastated. I didn't think we played that well in the warmup games and didn't hold much hope for the tournament but against Lithuania we looked terrific. Struggled against Mexico but saw some good signs from the bench against Angola. We were up by 12 against Turkey and the game was for the taking but we just couldn't get there. Turkey knocked down the clutch shots from down town to get over the line. We had our chances. Proud of the guys and I really liked the makeup of the team but I thought our weakness in half court offense and some of our defense at times cost us. Probably would have preferred to get beat by double figures.

lol. australia the better team for 99.95% of the game. refs completely off their heads for 3 qtrs. those double fouls against anderson when he tried to back into the post just to be struck in the head twice by the defender was amazing. not only not a foul on anderson , but should have been 2 quick fouls on his defender and put the guy in foul trouble early in the game. gibson hit on a pump fake at the three line. delly under the basket has 2 defenders land on top of him and take him out, wtf. turkey wins a game with about 3 mins of actual basketball.

i thought australia put up a really good effort , with just a couple of poor decisions at the end and we really just lacked mills go to offense.