Watched Serbia's game yesterday, and they were very patchy. Their defence looked a good couple of notches better than France's though, I doubt we will get 10+ cheap alleys/back door cuts in this one.

Boomers are a good chance to win, but it is no sure thing.

So, Croatia just defeated Spain. I did not see that one coming.

Serbia plays a similar style to Australia but they don't have the same size inside. I think we should concentrate on feeding Baynes and Bogut and the rest will come together. I am a bit on the edge with this one but leaning towards a Boomers win due to the inside strength.

Second in our pool would probably link us up with either Argentina or Croatia by the looks of things. I'd favor us to beat either of them but the top 4 will be where it is quite difficult.

I'm stoked with the Boomers win first up, but I don't think there's much difference between finishing 2nd vs 3rd in our pool.

It's so even, we already suspected that but it's been confirmed with Braz vs Lith and Croatia vs Spain going down to the wire, Nigeria will be easybeats but anything can happen with the other 5 teams in that pool.

Also, if France, Aus and Serbia were all to finish on 3 wins, would it come down to overall percentage in all games, or a mini pool between Aus, France and Serbia?

I loved the Boomers first up, Baynes and Bogut give us genuine size and power, and it was fantastic to see Delly and Bogut working so well together with all those alleys. This core group (Delly, Mills, Ingles, Bogut, Baynes, Andersen) has been playing together for a long time now, so it's great to finally see real chemistry on the court.

Mini pool I think?

Re my previous comment, take that back, finishing 2nd in our pool is better because it would have the advantage of avoiding the USA in a semi final. It would delay a finals matchup with USA to the Gold medal match (Assuming USA finishes #1 on our group)

Correct, 2nd is better.
Therefore we should be looking to tank when we play the USA in the round robin.

Serbia are a tight, experienced team, led by the dangerous play of 2016 Euroleague champion Miloš Teodosić, one of the best point guards in Europe over the past decade. The 2014 FIBA World Cup silver medalists are also big, strong and well-drilled. Expect discipline and execution and a team that will never quit.

Preview: Can the Boomers beat Serbia?

It's actually not a bad idea. If you are going to beat them, it's only going to be once, and why waste it? No real upside to beating them, might as well not give them anything to scout for the finals game.

USA doesnt need to scout Australia lol

^ Insider, could you not see koberulz tongue in the side of his cheek?

My thoughts have and always will be that when we play at this level we should never look too far ahead and always, always play to win no matter who we are up against, end of story!

Either we are good enough, or we aren't, it makes no difference who we play, just look to the Angola/Turkey stuff up last year if you want proof...

"Re my previous comment, take that back, finishing 2nd in our pool is better because it would have the advantage of avoiding the USA in a semi final. It would delay a finals matchup with USA to the Gold medal match (Assuming USA finishes #1 on our group)"

So, basically what I said in the original post then.. ;)

In the highly unlikely event that we beat Serbia and then surprise the US, we can take first place in the pool and still not meet the US until the Gold Medal game. I would happily take the win in the group phase for the slightly easier run in the quarter finals rather than hold anything back.

"So, basically what I said in the original post then.. ;) "

Haha, yes, my bad! Exactly what you said

You go into every game looking to win I think but the USA game is one we can (and probably will) lose without it affecting our chances too much. If we can beat Serbian and then eat our vegetables with Venezeula and China we are in great shape going forward against an Argentina or a Lithuania in the crossover. I'd hope for Argentina personally

The quarter final will be a tough match up in any scenario. A very good team will miss the finals in Pool B, and a good team will finish 4th. Anyone could win that pool and anyone could finish 4th or 5th.

We can definitely beat Serbia, but I lump them in with Croatia & Lithuania as three teams that scare me because they tend to play the same scrappy/physical game that we do, but better. Unlike France, they are usually more than the sum of their parts.

Baynes and Bogut will be the key to winning this game, LOL tanking no chance remember how mad goran got! boomers by 14 points

What time does the game start?

2:45am Wednesday morning

is it on ch7. ch7 two, or ch7 mate.

where/how do you get the scheduling channel, All i have is a time for ch7

1st opals game was ch7, 2nd was ch7 two. not knowing makes it hard to record.

One win v a very ordinary France and we are talking preferred 1/4 final opponents and almost shining our medals lol

I do hope we aren't getting ahead of ourselves peeps

Yes it is.

1:15am AWST
2:45am ACST
3:15am AEST

^ Yep, set your alarms....7hrs to go.

Stay up and watch it like a real Boomers fan lel

Whoops sorry Tuesday morning

Don't shoot the messenger if it's wrong, but
Channel 7 have tweeted that it will be on 7TWO.

^ Insider, could you not see koberulz tongue in the side of his cheek?

That's what Spain have done in the past. Why show any tricks in the pool game unless you have to?

GAME DAY BALA GAME DAY!!!

Surely we're overdue for some Beast Mode™

Here's hoping!

Win or lose, I just want to see more of that slick play at both ends we saw against France. Hard to remember a more polished display from a Boomers team.

Boomers go up 19-11 with Delly putting up 10 including 2 triples. Really tough defense played so far by both teams, countered by some big plays at the offensive end. Quality basketball right now.

With this kind of high intensity game, depth will matter a lot.

Defense tends to suffer a lot when Bogut is resting. Serbia clawing back.

Dat dive tho

This is a high quality game. Great D by Delly!!

Tech foul city!

They're missing a lot of wide open 3s this quarter.

Ingles needs to be more aggressive. Looking to pass too much. But awesome transition D. Boguts rebounding is outstanding.

Hopefully Bogut's conditioning will hold up because we need him to play big minutes in this one. Although a couple dodgy fouls called on him will limit his time on court.

Is this yet another tech? WTF is with all these techs?

We need the bench to contribute more. Bairstow in particular needs to step up, especially as he might get more minutes with Bogut resting due to foul trouble.

There were opportunities there to get a really good lead but our 3 point shooting completely dried up.

Delly literally didn't touch Teodosic. More terrible reffing again.

Serbia go up 43-40 at the half in a high quality game.

Yes the calls have been iffy, but holy shit, we just can't put the ball in the basket. Terrible offense combined with terrible shooting. Ingles, Lisch and Broekhoff can't buy a basket

Stop using Ingles its obivious his not playing well, his D has been alright but he cant buy a bucket

Bogut has been +10 in 15 minutes. That means the team is -13 in 5 minutes without Bogut.

Bogut's third foul on a T really sucked. Lemanis will have to be careful how he uses him in the 2nd half. Do you start him? If you don't the game might slip away so maybe you roll the dice.

Agreed, Rat10. If Bogut fouls out, he fouls out. We need him to play as many minutes as possible. Serbia surely will be aware of his foul trouble in any case and continue to challenge him.

Boomers playing singlet grab defense.

Both teams look evenly matched, Boomers look good when Bogut is in the court, Serbia look good when Teodosic is on the floor.

This game looking like it will come down to brain farts and referee calls.

I got a gut feeling the Serbs will nail this.

I hold my breath every time the whistle blows and Bogut is near the ball.

This is a great game Delly v Teodosic.

Lisch just brings nothing at this level.

Delly definitely in Beast Mode. You just have to sit back and admire how hard he plays. Anderson with a massive 3 to give us momentum going into the last qtr.

Glad I woke up for this one. Quality game this.

Delly keeping us in this game. Serbia up 63-62 at the end of the 3rd.

If the Boomers can pull his one off, I would rate it as the best victory I've seen from the Boomers, given the quality and form of the opposition side.

Hey guy relax, put your feet up and enjoy a tough game between two evenly matched teams.

Bogut gets his 4th foul with 8:36 remaining. Lemanis benches him.

Delly is playing out of this world!! Great D Baynes. Agree rid would certainly be up there with one of best wins ever. This is a sensational game.

Baynes starting to make a contribution. Time for Mills to help out too, please.

Just as I write that, Mills with the easy layup. Hopefully this can trigger something in him.

Delly with 23 points, 8 assists, 0 turnovers so far. So impressive.

Another unsportsmanlike called. The refs tech/unsportsmanlike-fest is ruining this game.

Bogut must re-enter this game.

Bogut finally back in with under 3 mins remaining.

Big 3 Jingles!

Dont say anything yet!

ohhh mumma

Wow. Love it when Drewey starts cheering too!!

Mills hits the transition mid-range shot! Boomers up 9 now!

Bring on the USA!

Single best performance by a Boomer's teams ever. Convinced now.

what a pearler of a game !

Ingles with another dagger 3! THis is a huge finish for the Boomers!

Massive win against a very tough opponent. Unlike France they gave us nothing. Had to earn it.

Well done boys!!!!!!

Clutch 4th Q, awesome stuff from the boys! Joe, Patty and Delly all stepped up

"Single best performance by a Boomer's teams ever."

Totally agree. That was a thoroughly entertaining and impression performance. A tough game against and quality in-form opponent. Huge win.

Inspiring stuff. What a sensational finish. Clutch basket after clutch basket. Great coaching Lemanis too - brought Bogut back at the perfect time to finish them off. Without question this is the best Boomers team I have ever seen.

How difficult was it to watch this and not wake the wife and kids up?

Boomers has come to play this Olympics. Easily the best 2 games I've seen them play in a long time.

*impressive.

Cram, you are damn lucky to see this one live.

We were always the better team just couldnt hit our shots in the first 3, and had lots of bad luck with foul trouble. Boomers are rolling baby!!

So clutch!

Been a pleasure folks. Goodnight/ morning wherever you might be.

Congrats Boomers from NZ!!

Amazing game. Delly was unbelievable.

Legends. So proud of them right now.

If we play like this in the crossovers, I can live with the result even if we don't medal.

Makes a big difference with 2 world class guards on the team. Mills and Delly were superb.

It's tough to feel sleepy after that.

Delly with 23 points and 13 assists, 0 turnovers.

Mills struggled from deep, shooting 2/9, yet ended up contributing 26 points.

Ingles with 10 points, 5 assists, including 2 clutch 3s late in the 4th.

Bogut with 9 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and some incredible D again.

Baynes finished with 10 points, 7 boards.


The bench contributed 17 points tonight.

I wonder if Lemanis will really go after USA by playing the starters big minutes again, or decide to give them more rest. It'll be 5 games in 10 days. If we want to medal, we can't let the starters be run down for the all-important elimination games.

^ Yeah interesting scenario, I hope they go all out at the start of the USA game but if we fall behind by 12+ we should start resting players and get minutes into the bench.

pac12 allstars vs china would be a good game, i wouldnt be against resting some of our best players against usa

"ME is gonna be unbearable today"

Translation: ME is going to be correct today. As for unbearable, yes I had planned on that.

-

As for the game against USA, you play to win even if it is unlikely. I am all for resting stars, but we have two games coming up against Venezeuala and China where Bogut can rest and you can probably send in the bench for the last half. I think you should always want to give yourself that shot at a miracle with the USA.

You're not going to beat the US twice. Save the miracle for the gold medal game. No point wasting the effort now.

What a win! Amazing game.

Delly was inspirational!

Recap: Dellavedova inspires Boomers to impressive win over Serbia

Nah, go for the win now. Why rest now only to try the next game closer to the knockout? Get the win now, then you rest leading into the big knockouts. Put yourself in the position to have an easier match

Great last quarter and an awesome win, but I wonder how they are going to officiate the USA V AUS game?

If this is anything to go by, the officials may have a say in the result, unfortunately for someone...

Anyhow, we will need our shooters to fire again, at least we now know what they can bring, Go Aussie!

Time to start believing !!

Great effort Boomers.

Bogut's interior D is the main difference between losing these types of games against quality international opponents by 5-10 points, and winning them.

Delly is doing a great job of running the offense, and Patty is coming through in his role as the go to scorer.

Strong contributions throughout the team, but it's the NBA guys who are leading from the front.

In the other pool, Argentina looks very small to me, I think they will score plenty of points but struggle to cope with Nene/Gasol/Valancuinus etc in the paint, and I'm going to predict they finish 5th in that pool. A good team has to miss out, and I suspect unfortunately it will be Argentina (which is a shame cos I love Ginobili of course!). I'm predicting a Boomers 2nd finish will result in a match vs Brazil or Croatia quarter final. Bring it on!!!!

#Believe #OneTeam

Actually re Pool B if Argentina can beat Croatia then Argentina may finish 4th.

But I think Spain, Lithuania and Brazil's bigs will cause trouble for Argentina.

I think Spain will recover and finish top 2, along with Lithuania. Since Brazil has already lost to Lith, they seem most likely to finish 3rd. In some ways this is tough on the Boomers since Brazil will have the home crowd behind them (watch the last qtr of Braz vs Lith to get an idea of how crazy the Brazilian crowd is!).

Still, there's a long way to do and anything could happen in Pool B. I just like gazing into my crystal ball... haha!

Only just watched that one (thank goodness I avoided the scores) and I have to agree with those big calls above - best Boomers performance I've seen. That was freakin huge.
I was ready to throttle Patty at times over the first 3 quarters for some of his decision-making. When he came in fresh in the 4th you kind of knew he was going to make or break it, and man, he made it. Bogut huge also. I was worried we might have held him out a tad long, but good call by AL to stay patient while we were hanging tough without him. Baynes & Anderson did exactly what we needed.

Delly though. What. A. Legend.

Wow, just finished it myself, what a game! Serbia are a super team and they threw a lot at the Boomers, but what a way to respond, I thought all nine guys made a contribution in that game.

Obviously Delly was the catalyst - that's the best PG game I've seen in the green and gold - and Mills the backbreaker, but also loved the way Bogut bounced back after Raduljica went at him early. Bogey really is the glue in this team.

That all but locks up second, which means we will probably see Spain in the QFs, who are too smart to finish second and face the US in the SFs.

I don't think we should fear Spain should it come to that though, the way we are playing I think we can get anyone playing at our tempo and that gives us a real chance against anyone but the USA.

Spain might not get to choose how they end. There;s a lot of factors to consider there. They could end up losing the wrong game and end up 4th.

They could, but Spain have a history of ending up exactly where they want to be.

Wait a second.

If Spain wins their remaining 4 games, then they'll *probably* finish on top and face 4th in our pool (whoever loses when France plays Serbia on Friday morning).

That wouldn't be guaranteed, since it'd depend on Croatia's other results, but it'd be quite likely IMO.

Brilliant effort by all. Bogut has made such a difference to the team, especially in giving them the confidence they need to be competitive but still stay relaxed.

And once again Andersen has shown how important he is to the team. Where are his haters now?

As for the U.S. Game, I'd rest Delly and Bogey cos they're too important to the team going forward.

Yes that was one of the best things I've ever witnessed live. I'll be living off that for years to come! Even the 2 hours on a packed bus through Cidade de Deus couldn't take the gloss off! So stoked!

This team is showing heart and passion. There's stuff for them to work in no doubt but they're a very real medal chance.

I have nothing to add to the adulation above, took the morning off work to watch the replay. Stunning stuff, against very good opposition.

Coming second in pool would be our best ever pool result at an Olympics or WCs?

Yes I believe it would be. And I also think it means that we will at least have our best result since 2000 as well, because if we lose quarters, I think the lowest we can rank is 6th given our second placing in the pool.

7 replaying just the 4th quarter (on now)
:(

In 1996 we finished 4-1 so we are on track to match that, touch wood. Of course, that included a highly-dubious effort from Greece who lost to us by 40 and just so happened to avoid Croatia in the QFs.

Karma bit them on the butt and we beat Croatia in our greatest men's game, which will hopefully be relegated to second or third after this tournament!

I thought this comment from Ingles says a lot about the difference in this campaign: the mental toughness of this group.

-- "I've been on Aussie teams before that haven't handled adversity like that," said swingman Joe Ingles.

The toughness of players like Bogut and Delly has been so important to this team. Our NBA 5 (let's not bother counting Bairstow as an NBAer) all have experience in big finals games.

Not sure about comments like this, though, from Andersen talking about chances against the US:

-- Said Andersen, who played parts of three seasons in the NBA: "It's like a Hail Mary I suppose you'd call it. But we're gonna go out there and give it our all and try to shake up the world."

Although Andersen has proven to be an extraordinary winner throughout his career, so I suppose I shouldn't be doubting him.

Totally agree with Ingles. I have not seen a Boomers team execute better down the stretch against top competition as they have. The last time that happened was probably Andrew Gaze in 2000 against Italy? I know they survived a late charge from Lithuania in 2014, but we'd built a big lead. This is probably the most noteable comeback in 16 years.

Didn't know this is the first time the Boomers have won their first two games at an Olympics.

Also have to add that this is the first time we've ever shown any consistency. We usually knock off one world power at each tournament and then straggle along. This time we beat two world powers back-to-back in a convincing fashion. Rather than being the exception, beating world class teams appears to be the new status quo for the Boomers.

You'd expect this team to be able to handle the pressure of tight games though.

4 of the Boomers starting 5 have played roles on NBA championship teams in the past 3 years. Our starting 5 must have 1500-2000 NBA games experience between them- including hundreds of playoff games, and then you’ve got Andersen coming off the bench who has won 3 Euroleague titles.

Delly, Baynes and Bogut in particular are all tough, and all extremely competitive on court. All hustle hard on D. They don’t take a backward step. And Patty has a history of success in Boomers colours.

Because of all of the above, I said before the Olympics that no team other than the USA would beat us comfortably- ie: We might not necessarily win a medal but the toughness, competitiveness and experience in this group mean that we should at least make it a close contest against any opponent other than the USA. So far they’ve even exceeded my hopes for them. It’s great to see!

Boomers getting some love.

Ready for Matthew Dellavedova in a bigger role?

After escaping Kyrie Irving's shadow with the Cavaliers, Dellavedova could start as a quasi-point guard with Giannis Antetokounmpo for the Bucks this season.

Dellavedova might have previewed what's in store for Milwaukee - and Irving and Team USA – with 23 points and 13 assists in Australia’s 95-80 win over Serbia on Monday.

Australia’s next game is Wednesday against the Americans, who will first thump Venezuela at 6 p.m. today. Australia might not be a huge test for Team USA either, but the team from Down Under could be the U.S.’s top opponent in Rio.

Australia is the first men’s basketball team with two wins in the 2016 Olympics, beating France – which entered the Games favored to medal – by 21 in their opener. Serbia, which beat Venezuela by 24 in its opener, was also no slouch.

But Australia relied on its point guards to pull away late. Not only did Dellavedova excel, the Spurs’ Patty Mills led Australia with 26 points.

Serbia just had nowhere to hide Milos Teodosic, who scored 17 points but was a big liability defensively. For any NBA team considering signing Teodosic, a talented offensive point guard, this game should provide serious reservations.

Miroslav Raduljica, who played for the Bucks and Timberwolves, made a better case for an NBA return with 25 points. Aggressive and physical, the center was difficult to stop inside.

But Australia held its ground in the middle with a couple proven NBAers, Andrew Bogut and Aron Baynes, and staked its claim as a medal contender.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) Down Under is on top in Olympic men's basketball.

Now Australia is looking forward to its shot at the U.S. for the chance to stay there.

"We’re going out there to win a game," forward Joe Ingles said. “I think we’ve got a team that is focused on that and we believe we can do some special things in this tournament.”

Australia became the first team to start 2-0 here by pulling away to beat Serbia 95-80 on Monday. Patty Mills scored 26 points and Matthew Dellavedova had 23 points and 13 assists for the Australians, who have opened the Olympics by beating France and Serbia, two of the top-six teams in the world.

The Aussies play the top-ranked Americans on Wednesday.

“We haven’t done anything we didn’t expect to do. These are the goals we set,” center Andrew Bogut said.

“We’re not happy being 2-0. We want to continue on and go to the medal rounds.”

i think Lemanis has silenced a few critics with the teams performance to date!!!!!!!!


Maybe even Joyce will silence a few!!!