Boomers by 15

No doubt 7 will show the game in full.

USA by 36.

I'm gonna say within 5 at half time, but they run away and win by 20. We can dream all we want, but it's not going to happen unless you play like crap and we play our best game ever.

U.S. will have too much pride in this game, will want to smash and make a statement. If Lemanis is smart, he'll rest Bogey and others well with limited minutes.

Australia's last game against Venezuela will more than likely be a dead rubber for both teams, so I think Lemanis will rest Bogut, and maybe others for that game.

But it's too early in the tournament to rest players. Sure, if US is up by 20 at 3 quarter time then sit our starters for the last quarter, but only if it gets to that point.

USA have had an easy run so far with cruisy wins over teams who have no chance of progressing through. Let's hope the Boomers get the early jump on them and make it a competitive match.

The ball will need to stay in Dellys hands for most of the game.
Mills looks too risky under the pump, thats where USA will get momentum,off turnovers.
Mills job - running off screens for catch and shoot with Delly running the offence.

Lets roll the dice...

Getting minutes into Motum, Goulding, etc can only help them if they're required against another intimidating opponent down the track.

What time is the game?

Tomorrow morning

6:00am WA
7:30am SA/NT
8:00am East

Keys to victory for the boomers will be to limit turnovers and defensive rebounds by the US.

To have a chance against the the US you need to completely eliminate these two things.

The US is at their best in free flowing transition, where their natural god given talent does all the work.

Boomers will need to slow the game down and grind it out to have any chance.

Looking forward to seeing this game regardless.

Hopefully we play serious until a blowout is unreachable then let Goulding loose and hope he talks smack to someone like Heal did which will translate to lots of media coverage.

Do you mean eliminate offensive rebounds? Because eliminating defensive ones is a big ask against the weakest of opponents let alone the US.

Luuuc, the way to eliminate defensive rebounds is not to grab all of the offensive ones, but simply just not to miss.

That really is the only effective strategy against the US, limit their opportunities by reducing the number of cheap points they get from steals, and turnovers and by shooting a very high percentage.

I like the strategy of not missing. I think it will work.

USA by 25+.

_Strungout_, I have always thought teams should try it a bit more.

I think we need to tank by intentionally missing roughly 50% (give or take) of our shots.

Ok, I've given it a lot of though. Pretty radical stuff, but you guys just might be onto something.
In case it happens to prove effective, maybe we keep that one up our sleeves until the elimination games.

I think the Boomers should try to gbet their big men in foul trouble early and then exploit it when they're out.

Sorry I meant not liking the US grab their defensive rebounds while we are in offence.

Hack a Jordan?

Or are FIBA rules more disadvantageous with regard to intentional fouling to prevent what happens in the NBA?

Otherwise, get Martin out there and Hack a Jordan.

If you can get 20 FT's from Jordan from 2 players (Goulding and Martin), he will only make 10 or 11.

10/11 points from 20 trips down the Court:

That's like shooting 5/20 from the field

;)

Exactly you tank at the quarter final stage no one is going to see that coming and I'm willing to bet FIBA wouldn't try and investigate us afterwards too.

Genius.

Singlets can be purchased at Sportcentre on Port Rd, Hindmarsh (if residing in Adelaide)

USA have so far only faced the weakest two teams in the group, with only one decent opponent in practice games (Argentina). It might be a good time to upset USA. Although I'd prefer if they cruised in pool games and were finally tested (and hopefully upset) when the pressure was on in an elimination game.

Does anyone have an idea which channel the game will be on.

Ta

^^FFS

7two

!!!



@7Olympics

CHANNEL CHANGE: Please note, Men's #Basketball #AUS v #USA will be shown on SEVEN at 8am. Go @BasketballAus Boomers!

Noice. Now just need the boys to hoop it up a bit.

I find it amazing how different these two teams are, I mean look at the warm ups for example.

Australia do their warm up routine according to their usual lines and structure, waiting their turn and run it like a mini practice, while Team USA hang around looking cool, throw up casual shots and just do their own individual thing, while looking cool!

Can't wait for this to get rolling...

Boomers have clearly focussed all their preparation into the game plan, and none into singing in tune.
Good sign that they're taking it seriously.

We get first possession, duly hesitate and turn it over resulting in a 3 pointer at the other end, oh dear, hope the standard isn't set already!

Yeah boys, way to shake it off and stick it to them, great start by the Boomers...

This quarter has been fun :)

This Boomers team is fun to watch !

Great start. Boomers still have to eliminate their O boards and play some perimeter D.

As expected, it gets fugly fast once we go to our bench.

The minutes should be staggered so Joe Ingles becomes our PG when Delly sits, then Delly can come back in for Ingles, or vice versa. Lisch just can't get it done at this level.

Weak foul, ref :/

And another. Baynes. That looked soft :/

This refereeing.... ffs.

Bairstow holding his own today!

Exciting stuff, loving the play, not so much some of the officiating but it is what it is, Go Aussies...

Bairstow doing surprisingly well.

How did Goulding miss that layup?

They just have too much shooting and it's going to reach critical mass at some point. We don't have the length to run out to shooters properly. There'll be a point soon where they just hit 3 or 4 in a row.

We are outsmarting them though so far with vet savvy. Great to watch.

Leading at half time 54-49

That's a win for mine.
I just hope we don't get tempted to run the starters for excessive minutes.

Delly 9 assists already. Mills connecting. This is great :)

Been struggling to get streams to watch in China but whata day to get a good one.

Sensational stuff.

Entertaining stuff. USA look worried. Hopefully we keep up the level of D from the 2nd.

I'll admit to being a doubter about this Boomers team but they are rapidly turning me into a believer. What a great first half. It's going to be a challenge to maintain the high shooting percentage while keeping the USA from connecting with their shots.

Not a lot of rebounding in this game. Bogut without a single board?

It's kind of like watching a Spurs v Cavs game, no prizes for guessing who is who...

Time for the premiership quarter

At the half, Delly with 9 assists and a more human-like 3 turnovers.

Nothing matter from here other than us having a crack and the result showing that we can run with them, if we get them great, but as long as we don't capitulate we can hold our heads high...

Fouls are already killing us. We can't play hard D :/

3 good looks for the Boomers to start the third but all missed.

That shooing percentage is starting to even up & with the USA talking 46 shots to the Boomers 28 in the first half, it's not going to take much of a shift to blow the Boomers out of this.

Well, that may be the case, but Baynes needed to stuff that ally-oop and not allow the USA to do what they have done so far, we can set the tone early and he is floundering at the moment, not good!

This is the situation I want Brad Newley for. Broekhoff's shot is not dropping, and he doesn't really offer anything else, so you give Newley a run.

USA finally converting our lazy turnovers into points.

Need to stem those turnovers.

Good time out. Storm coming.

Boogie on 4 fouls.

Is this not silly?
Surely Bogut should not still be out there

And right when I say that
:/

He'd better be ok

They should just use NBA refs. Whatever they give up in impartiality or not knowing FIBA rules will be moot compared with the consistency they will call the game. No one else is professional enough.

Leave Bogut on ice for the rest of the game.

Boogie and Jordan both on four fouls. We need to exploit this...

Forget the ref's, if we are going to push them we need to get some boards, this game will come down to who can control the rebounds because Team USA are just getting too many second chances to score.

DA been huge this tournament

How is that a foul on the shot?

Offensive zero guys like Bairstow need to pretend to be looking to shoot or drive when they catch on the perimeter. A couple of plays there that would be the difference between the defense rotating over to a shooter or not.

Also Ingles needs to actually be looking to shoot or drive.

Andersen and Baynes need to step up to cover Bogut's presence.

I hear ya Mick, it's not like they can't do it, but sometimes they seem intimidated don't they.

Regardless, if we can stay with them we can make this interesting!

The difference is going to come down to the long rang shooting. Melo has as many threes as we have as a team.

Ryan Broekhoff never arrived in Rio.

We might soon learn to close out on Anthony.

We're just throwing up junk now. Definite signs of fatigue.

Looking really tired but still playing hard & smart out there

scores?

80-88 with 3 minutes left

GET A STOP!

GET A STOP!

USA 90 - 82 Australia

At the end of the day it just came down to wing depth / length for us. We just need bigger mobile guys rotating onto their shooters, and on the offensive end we need taller guys spotting up so we can get shots off against their length.

Great effort. Cut down those turnovers next time and we'll be around the mark come the final buzzer.

88-93 into the last minute

I love this lineup they're closing with:

Delly
Mills
Broekhoff
Ingles
Bogut

Let's see it more often.

Kyrie with, his now trademark, death dagger!

Offensive boards USA 21 - AUS 7, says something!

Offensive boards USA 21 - AUS 7, says something!

What happened to Andrew?

Back on with 24 seconds to go.

Look, a six point game in the final 20 or so seconds and we have the ball, probably (obviously) a forgone conclusion but I am pretty impressed with the boomers today!

We need to be running better inbounds plays. Lots of junk going up after timeouts.

Very pleased with this one, yeah.

For next time, don't let USA grab so many O boards, close out on the hot shooter, and it'd be much closer.

Not a bad game but lost composure a bit at the end with some really poor shot choices, exemplified by that attempt from Mills with about 20 seconds remaining.

"Tom Thibodeau will be watching this Australia tape twice overnight."

-Fran Fraschilla on twitter.

A ten point loss and we went 50% while they went 39% from the field, so for me it was our depth and lack of boards that killed us.

I think we can take a fair bit from that game, the fact that Team USA know we can go with them could be something for next time, if we can get to play them again.

We need to build on this now, not drop a stupid loss to anyone until the medal rounds anyway...

#Bleedgreenandgoldforever

Strong showing and looks like no injuries so great all round. Those two missed easy chippies in a row from Mills and Baynes at the start of the 4th hurt a lot in context.

@D444

The after timeout plays weren't great, and then Mills and Delly were out of juice late.

We need to find ways to use Jingles more as a ballhandler early to give those two guys rest so they can close out late from deep. Unfortunately the bench guys aren't up to the job as primary ballhandler, so it has to be Joe Ingles.

Would you even bring Ingles off the bench to try to kickstart Broekhoff. It gives Ingles a chance to be The Man a bit more like Ginobili does with the Spurs or Iggy does with Golden State, gives our starting backcourt better rest without giving up too much playmaking, and gives Broekhoff a chance to heat up.

It's not terribly broken so you'd be cautious to meddle with it, but it's better to be proactive about these things.

The main vets with good performances: Delly with another amazing game, a double-double with 11pts, 11asts, Mills with an impressive shooting 30 points, Bogut with 15 points on 7/9 shooting and his usual D, and Andersen's 13 points were huge.

Hopefully the bench can gain some shooting confidence in the next two games.

All this talk about our young guys in 2020, it shows that the vet experience will remain so valuable in the international game.

More people streamed and watched that game than the Melbourne cup .... According to Chanel 7 info...... Yet basketball of Anykind can't get a gig on main stream TV..... Says a lot doesn't it

Some obnoxious know it all American in my hostel wanted to talk about how college players could destroy the worlds teams. He's very very quiet now

Super impressive performance, and a lot of fight. Melo is just a monster at this level.

Where are the haters though? I thought we were meant to be blown out by 40? Where's that Anonymous loud mouth we all know and love? I want to hear how Delly and his 11 assists tonight sucked and how we can't hang with the USA. The Boomers were a few minutes away from the greatest upset of all time.

Disclaimer: I couldn't watch the game, this is just going from the box score.

Rebounds: 47-40 USA
Turnovers: 9-16 (Australia with more)
Even FTA's.

USA made 17 of 39 threes. Which means they only made 17 of 48 shots from 2 (.354). That's great interior D, and against the USA you'd definitely be happy with them settling for jumpers. Of course you'd rather not let Melo get 15 shots up from deep when he's shooting like that.

Delly with a team high 7 boards (nobody else had more than 4)

Looks like nobody other than Melo and Irving showed up for the USA today. Was Durant just missing, or did we actually find a way to play good D?

@Naph, I watched it and we were good, we took it up to them physically and played them well generally, however it is hard to defend everything and those three balls did count in the end.

The rebound tally was more significant than the statistics show IMHO.

Towards the end we had some tired boys on court, so if we can get a little more support from the bench in crucial areas it will help us no end...

Yeah, the lack of depth really hurt down the stretch with both foul trouble and fatigue really shifting the odds of being able to compete at both ends.

@Anon #402, you have a good point there, I am sure that Lemanis wanted to win, but it looks like he kept a little of that powder dry in case we gat to play them again too.

A tough balancing act towards the end of that game because we were close enough to have a go at them, but probably never going to actually get over them, so well done to the coaching staff of the boomers!

Thanks Bear, good to hear.

Anyone had any success watching replays on the Channel 7 App? I'm reading lots of horror stories on Whirlpool and the like.

"A tough balancing act towards the end of that game because we were close enough to have a go at them, but probably never going to actually get over them, so well done to the coaching staff of the boomers!"

Oh, I don't know about not getting over them. I think we were a few soft calls away from the win personally.

@ME, I think a ten point win slightly flatters the USA too, but I did say 'probably'...

Great performance by the Boomers. They did not look fussed about matching up against the USA at all - I think that's what a couple of years of NBA experience for some of our guys can do.

Melo got them over the line while most of the rest looked quite underdone. DAJ had his moments, but I don't think he and Cousins are a great combination to anchor a team. A hothead plus a braun-over-brain type.

Bogut and Andersen had some excellent patches, as did Mills and Dellavedova.

Usual risk of coming out flat in the next two games though, having "played their final" in this one.

All in all, three very good games so far in the tournament.

Media running a story on Paul George's post-game comments labelling the Boomers "dirty":

"Speaking after the Dream Team's 98-88 win at the Carioca Arena, George attacked the character of the Australian team.
"We knew we was (sic) going to get their best," he said.
“It was an adjustment for us. This game kind of got out of hand with the chippy, physical play.
“We knew that going in, this team has a knack for being a little dirty.”

Haha, Longley's response:

-- Australia's NBA legend Luc Longley, now on the Boomers coaching staff, said in response:

"Tell em, that’s international basketball.’’

Longley and Durant smack talking was awesome, purely because Longley has three rings and Durant has none.

From ESPN US:

"According to the pre-game rumbles in circulation in the media tribune, Australia showed up with plans to hold back some against Team USA ... in the hope that it'll have a second shot to play the United States with a medal on the line next week."

The difference was we were -20 in the possession game. That was it. Now we are unlikely to beat the US in that area, especially with our aggressive style, but if we meet them again a -10 would give us a real chance. Some turnovers were just our non-NBA guys getting used to how quickly the US can get into the passing lanes, which can be stamped out if there is a next time.

Per possession we were clearly the better team, our offence is working a treat (thanks New Zealand!) and our D is proactive, aggressive but smart. Lemanis has really pulled together a good program over four years.

Loved the way Lemanis coached in the first half, running subs through with our staters, and I thought the bench guys did their job. Obviously Andersen was excellent, but really impressed with Goulding and Bairstow to, just did what the team needed them to do. We need Broekhoff and Lisch hitting threes, that's what they’re there for - 3 and D.

In the second half Lemanis didn’t give our starters enough short blows and they ran out of steam to win it. If there’s a next time he’s got to back those bench guys to come on for a few mins and do what they did early on.

Overall though another superb performance, let’s hope we can reproduce this level of play in the knockout rounds. It will be tough against some great teams, but with Bogut somehow jumping out of his skin we have the experience and cohesion to match anyone (even the US it now seems), particularly if Lisch and Broekhoff start hitting.

"One team source went as far as telling ESPN.com that Australia coach Andrej Lemanis intended to limit his starters' minutes in the second half -- while using only half of his playbook -- so as not to give away too much in this group play encounter.

Yet Lemanis had to detour from the Gregg Popovich-style subterfuge route as the evening wore on.

Because his team played so well."

Australia played out of their skins in the first half. Andersen was knocking down toughest of shots, Bogut getting every floater, Patty was ka-ching from three and Delly serving up freakish assists.

For all our hard work, it's just too easy for Team USA, in all of their boring isolationist plays, to just have a star knock down shots left right and centre.

Australia needs to improve on turnovers and rebounding let us down on occasion giving them multiple opportunities - you just can't do either of those against the US. You really need to go near perfect. To our credit, shooting at 68% is something we're unlikely to repeat but it's a bloody good way to try and be perfect.

What gives me confidence is the seeming consistency of the Boomers so far. Usually we'd fight hard and play well one game then play a very average and generally miserable game. However, out of 3 games against 3 quality opposition, we've played 3 very strong and competent games. This holds us in good stead against the uncertainty we face in the next round against teams which are pretty similar to Australia talent wise, whether it be Lithuania, Brazil, Argentina, Serbia or Spain

"THE epic Olympics basketball clash between the Aussie Boomers and USA Dream Team has proved the game that stopped a nation - with 450,000 live streams of the clash, compared to the 348,000 who watched last year's Melbourne Cup race. Seven are expecting the 450,000-figure for the Dream Team game to improve, once final numbers are crunched."

Geez, basketball in Australia & the NBL have a real chance to gain some momentum

Anon, I'm not sure you quite understand the quote that you've responded to there..

That fast-break layup that Goulding bricked off the glass? Newley dunks it, just saying...

AUS have been great these first three games. No need to dissect today's game too much I think. We did as good as pretty much anyone has against them since their overhaul in 2006. Too many TOs and offensive boards for them hurt us in the end.

Even though we've been great so far, my fears of China and Venezuela are heightened now. One stupid little slip could cost us a shot in either medal game now. Let's hope for no letdown in tenacity.

I think Martin showed he could defend their wing guys just fine! The defensive issues were a mobile four to run Anthony off the line and defensive rebounding, not the wings.

As I said before though, our defence was fine, had we not given them 20 extra possessions we win that game.

Speed44, even if we lost to China and Venezuela, France would need to beat the USA to overtake us. And if they did they'd take first place, the USA second and we'd still avoid the US until the final.

Don't stress about the last two games, the boys have got them covered.

That was meant to read "lose to China or Venezuela". Losing both would be an issue.

Not sure why Melo was left open so much. He wasn't threatening inside, just shooting open 3's. Why not put someone like Motum on him just to stay with him and don't worry about anything else? At least foul him, make him earn it. I know that's ironic given Motum's not the most agile defender but he had nothing to lose if he got in foul trouble.

Kyrie was the main difference. His control, composure and accuracy when it's needed most is second to none.

But overall, great game from the Boomers. The chemistry between the starting 5 is excellent and probably the best in the tournament.

Really, 'ifs buts and maybes' are as irrelevant as Team USA saying, 'gee if we only had Le Bron we could win by 30 points every game'...

Paul George is such a sook, complaining the Boomers are dirty and the refs favoured us, if anything the USA got the better of the Reffing, some really soft calls against our bigs. Great performance by the boomers though, the offence is so good to watch!

Well done to the Boomers, they can hold their heads high with that result

That's true Paul, but would like to carry this momentum thru to the next round. Really would like to blow out both of them. Though resting Bogut seems more important right now, he really is massively important to our ball movement and defense

LMFAO anon ^

Let's win a game outside of the pool stage before talking about any aussie MVP candidates hey

Boti's write-up

They got serious in the second half turned up the D and we couldn't get anything going. We scored 54 in the first half to 34 in the second half. Our defence wasn't an issue you make them shoot from outside and Melo will never hit 9 3's in a game again for the rest of his life. We were breaking down offensively and Mills tried his best to keep us in it but we really needed someone else to step up too.

Anyway a lot to take out of the first half and if we run into them again just make sure we don't play as poorly as we did in the second half again. Baynes could do with a smack upside the head though built like Tarzan still playing like Jane.

@Zodiac, I think Baynes will be the first one to say he needs to be better if we play them again, let's see what he does from here...

It would have been easy, as many suggested, to count that game as gone and rest people and be content with them winning by 40. But we didn't and that was an awesome effort. Really proud of the team and hopefully that performance gives us some good karma with the basketball gods after previous tanking saw us get punished. This team is good enough to win a medal with a bit of luck going our way

"Let's win a game outside of the pool stage before talking about any aussie MVP candidates hey"

Exactly. While our form is awesome and very exciting, wherever you finish will mean a very tough QF, one that we'll have to play very well to win.

The big challenge is can we maintain this style, or do we go into our shells in the knockouts like we did against Turkey at the WC? With the team and coaching staff now more experienced and Bogut in the line-up I’m pretty hopeful we can play that game on our terms, and that would give us a great shot.

The other exciting thing is we are definitely good enough to win games in the medal rounds, moreso than 1996 which is the only other time we’ve looked likely.

I think the rest of the world will have us as their favourite team to get into that gold medal game now, so if it happens I suggest we all buckle in for a massive ride, here is hoping...

The main thing that gives me optimism this time is the mental aspect. So far it feels like the players & coaches have handled that side of the tournament close to flawlessly, and when it comes down to the big evenly-matched crunch contests, that's priceless.
Hopefully we can keep that up while still addressing some of the playing kinks.

Got my eye on Spain in the other group. Hanging around in the lower half, could be a nasty matchup in the crossover despite their lack of Marc and their age. A team that knows the big stage.

Bogut's block:

Brilliant effort by the Boomers.

And yeah, it was clear Lemanis was happy trying a few different things. It says a lot that Motum, Goulding, Martin all got on court in the first half while Barnes and Derozan barely got on court for USA.

If it gets to a Gold medal match, Lemanis will play Bogut, Patty and Delly for 35 minutes each- those 3 were the best players on court today, along with Anthony who had the hot hand. They're all having superb tournaments and working together awesomely

Did anyone else look at the starting five for each team and think to themselves we have 4 NBA championships to their 1?

They had three sitting on the bench though.

I looked and thought they've got a few guys who haven't played together at this level before but our guys have been there and done that together.

That showed, in terms of execution at both ends we were superior, and that's why teams like Spain, Lithuania and France are so tough at the pointy end. The Boomers are at that stage now.

Did anyone else look at the starting five for each team and think to themselves we have 4 NBA championships to their 1?

Also lol who's the Aussie commentating BBC basketball?

Out of all the other top 10 teams, who else can say their entire starting five guys are all pretty much in the prime or just on the tail end of it? The USA is it.

All the other teams are relying on their elite guys being too old, too young, or a combination of both.

The timeline is in our favour.

I thought it more interesting that each team had a fantastic multi-cultural mix on the court.

Thompson from Bahamas-African-European stock
Irving from Afro-American Aussie background
The others in Team USA's starting 5 mainly Afro-Americans I think.

Bogut from Euro-Australian mix
Baynes born in NZ
Mills a local Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander
Dellavedova is a sixth gen' Italian Aussie
Ingles roots are from the UK I believe.

Just great to see all of our guys gel so well on court and play for the green and gold, I am sure not one of them was looking at their opponent wondering how many rings they have...

Paul George made a complete and utter arseclown of himself in the after-match interview.
His "they're all role players" quip was more pathetic than the accusations of being dirty.

Well, guess what PG, four of those "role players" have NBA rings, and one of them just lit you up for 30.
Where's your ring flog?

I see anon suffering the technical 1D-10T computer error is back again, gee you were missed buddy...

Which other team has a starting 5 made up of players who all play meaningful minutes in the NBA, 4 of whom have won championships in the last 3 years?

And- 3 of them have played under Popovich or Kerr, two coaches who have revolutionised NBA basketball in the past few years. The Spurs took ball movement and team play to a new level in 2014, then Kerr copied it and bettered it in 2015 and 2016, and would've had back to back championships had it not been for Green’s stupidity and Bogut’s injury.

Patty and Bogut (and Baynes, for a while) have been playing for the two benchmark teams in the world, who have arguably produced the highest level of team basketball ever seen. Ever. (And Delly’s been a back up point for the reigning champions, and is a selfless, team first player).

That experience is all showing right now.

If nothing else, you are predictable, aren't you?

Playing devil's advocate, touch wood etc. etc. ... but if we finish second in our group after beating China and Venezuela (as we should), and then put in a solid, competitive performance but ultimately lose to Brazil/Spain/Lithuania in the quarter-final, how will this campaign be judged?

If everything you said, happens, it will be a disappointing tourney.

So losing to a team that have hardly played together, despite the Australians having experience playing together AND playing out of their skins, means the Australians were superior?

Je, it'd be judged as our best effort since Sydney, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Before this tourny, it looked to me like every team outside China/Ven/Nigeria had a serious shot at a medal. (In all likelihood that's 8 teams vying for 2 medals, since it's very hard to see the US not even getting Bronze).

I still think that's the case, but given the Boomers form over the first 3 games, I think the expectations have now risen to the point where *not* achieving our best result ever and getting a medal, will be seen as a big disappointment.

Most observers would say the Aussies have now proven they can consistently play at a level worthy of the gold medal game. Certainly, we've been comfortably the second best team to date. (Although, Argentina have been very impressive too- but in only 2 games). So that raises the bar. Based on the players comments, they expect a medal- and after the attention that this morning's game will get, the rest of the country now shares that expectation!

I view the campaign as already successful. Playing the last 2 games of the preliminary round not desperately hoping for a win is a great thing for Australian basketball.

Anything from here is a bonus although expectations are high because of how well the Boomers are playing.

I will be watching closely now to see how Serbia and France handle Team USA, two tough games for them after two soft ones before us will be very interesting...

We need to come out all guns blazing and put China and Venezuela away by 30+ each! Although I'm glad we have 2 easier games left, I hope we don't take it too easy, and come out slow in the QFs

I'll watch the Boomers two remaining games, but other than that I'll have all eyes on Pool B. Pool B is far more interesting, and there's already been a heap of close contests there.

You have the mighty midgets Argentina, who lack size and depth and are heavily reliant on a pair of 36 year olds who are playing as very undersized PF and C (Scola and Nocioni) but have a wealth of international experience with 4 holdovers from their 04 Gold (those two plus Delfino and Ginobili). With apologies to Steve Nash and Mike D'Antonio, small ball never looked so pretty.

Then you have the home town heroes Brazil, the youthful squad from Croatia who look like they’ll be an international powerhouse for the next decade, traditional powerhouse Spain who are out of sorts but can’t be counted out, and the Lithuanians- who don’t have many big names but consistently achieve great results in international play.

"So losing to a team that have hardly played together, despite the Australians having experience playing together AND playing out of their skins, means the Australians were superior?"

Sounds like the very definition of the word.

"Playing devil's advocate, touch wood etc. etc. ... but if we finish second in our group after beating China and Venezuela (as we should), and then put in a solid, competitive performance but ultimately lose to Brazil/Spain/Lithuania in the quarter-final, how will this campaign be judged?"

After this start it would be a disappointment. Top four should be the absolute lowest they come if we're being true to how they've started and the potential they've shown, but I'm thinking it's medal or bust now.

"Only superior at rebounding
Still won by double figures"

So the guy who predicted a blow out finally has found the courage to pop his head out with some inane crap. THe ultimate hater.

"Do you honestly think if every American was healthy that would be the squad they would send?"

I love how it goes from 'the USA could beat us by 40 with their C squad' and when we almost beat them "it was only their C squad". That's some classic goal post moving there.

Had a friend watching in the US and the commentators remarked that it looked as if the "Aussies had been playing together for 10 years".

Ringing endorsement of how the team has come together in such a short time, and how smooth the offense is.

Silly comments from George. There's a difference between playing hard and playing dirty and there were no plays you could class as dirty by the Boomers.

Americans like to winge

Great effort by all. Shame we ran out of energy in the last quarter. Now to keep up that high quality through to the gold medal round.

And, I hate to admit it but ... if Lemanis and co can keep up this level of quality, I'd be happy for them to keep going after Rio when we integrate our exciting youngsters.

I love how people think that 10 points or "double figures" means a thrashing. Obviously didn't watch the game. One Ingles rim out from being down 2 inside the last 70 seconds I believe. It was a very close game.

If it wasn't for Melo keeping them in touch when the rest of this "C Squad" couldn't hit the ocean, then it might've been different altogether.

Some interesting articles out there:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/nba-star-paul-george-calls-australia-dirty-as-kevin-durant-predicts-rio-olympics-medal-rematch-20160811-gqq0s6.html

From the article:

US coach Mike Krzyzewski was full of praise for the Australians, describing them as genuine gold medal contenders.

Krzyzewski said the clash with Australia was their first 'real' match of the Rio games, taking plenty of positives out of a rare tough encounter for the team that has lost just five of 138 appearances at the Olympics.

"We beat a heck of a team tonight," Krzyzewski said.

"I mean Australia has probably played the best of anybody in the Olympics. They played three really tough opponents, us being the third one - they just played lights out basketball. They play so well together as one.

"For us I thought it was a heck of a win because we beat a really good team, an outstanding team that was playing really well. That's the first real, real international we've had. The first two games we played we were significantly better than those two, but this is the real world now. "

And the lead "ballooned" to ten because Australia had to foul while in the penalty to stop the clock. It was much, much closer than 10 points for the entire game. Obviously this troll never watched. Just another guy moving goal posts.

Depends on the knockout game.

As long as the team acquit themselves well against Spain/Lithuania/Whoever I'll be fine. I'll be disappointed they couldn't go on with it after a good start, but content. Nothing wrong with playing good basketball and getting beaten on the day.

And this is heartening from the Aussie camp:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-11/boomers-match-it-with-usa-in-basketball-epic/7719274

A paste from the article says a fair bit about what some of our players are thinking:

"You don't get sh*t for small victories or moral victories," said Andrew Bogut after the game, which Australia lost 98-88.

"We're not coming out of this like 'this was an awesome game'. We lost."

Yet it was hard not to be impressed with one of the most polished performances produced by an Australian men's team at Olympic level.

"We beat a heck of team tonight," US coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

"They just played, I think, 'lights out' basketball."

Anderson was used sparingly in last qtr? (if at all)
i thought with him being such a huge mid range threat it may have got us some better long distance looks down the stretch.

Coach K bringing some humility and perspective. Hopefully he can instill some of that into the players, PG particularly.

Paul George is a twat. He just can't accept that they almost fell today and that there is a masssive target on their backs now that the Aussies have shown it is very possible to do.

Certainly anyone who watched the game and isn't a moron knows this was closer than the final result. Mills rimmed a 3 when we were 4 down with not long to go then we started to have to foul. If that shot had dropped anything might have happened

Durant was nearly about to become an Australian citizen!

lol

Was a great game. #unfinishedbusiness

Australia would have won the game if they didn't lose

History became a lie.
usa a one point better team at this game.

And just imagine what that result would have been with Simmons and Exum involved.....

Boomers have one major area to improve after this game: rebounding. The 47-40 rebounding disparity to USA doesn't really show how dominant USA was in rebounding because the Boomers missed 33 shots compared with USA's 53 misses. At one end, the Boomers had 32 defensive boards while USA had 21 offensive boards. Bogut and Baynes combined for just 2 defensive rebounds between them. Andersen had 5 boards, but that is just about as much as we can expect from him. The Boomers inability to clean up the defensive rebounds is really what gave USA the win.

Sure, USA put up a lot of 3s that lead to long rebounds, but is that enough to excuse the disparity?

We are small outside of our frontcourt so always going to be giving up team rebounds.

Puerto Rico 92-73 United States

Lithuania 94–90 United States

Argentina 89-81 United States

Congrats to the team well done, great performance.

On behalf of a lot of people, I'd like to also say well done to one Andrej Lemanis.

The blessing and The curse of Olympic basketball is that as good or as bad as you play in the group it all comes down to the first crossover match as to whether it's a successful campaign or not. We're in form and have put ourselves into the best possible position but that game will be tough and if we don't win it will be massively disappointing

If it does end up being a Gold Medal preview, it's shaping up to be spicy as fuck with all of the trash talk back and forth. The show ponies vs the Aussie battlers, All Stars vs role players with heart. A champion team vs a team of champions. If it goes down to the wire as it did today it would be one for the ages.

The most surprising thing about the US is they seemed to have now way to penetrate the Australian zone. Pretty much everything they threw up was from three point range. They may have got some put backs but that was the extent of everything they did within 22 feet of the ring. I am wondering why Australia was able to keep them at that distance when they struggled to do that against Serbia.

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2016/8/11/12432950/australia-team-usa-basketball-olympics-rio-2016-andrew-bogut

Nice article talking up some of the particulars of Australia's offense.

Nice article. The great thing about the Kiwi system is all the decoy action that makes you think it's equal opportunity, as the author wrote, whereas it is very directed to creating certain shots or executing counters off that.

It's a beautiful thing to watch, and glad it's not just our cousins getting to enjoy it anymore! Bogut is like our version of Pero Cameron on the international stage.