Slovenia have just dispensed with Germany 94-70
Dragic 27, 6 & 4
Doncic 20, 8 & 11

Slovenia continuing to be no good at all

Do you not get that they are as good as they are because of Doncic? Tell me what they did before Doncic came along? Ppl have only said they aren't good without Doncic. I've seen multiple recognised basketball personalities state the same thing on social media, Anstey was the latest I have seen.

Slovenia actually had the worst 1st half so far on Olympics and then took over in 2nd.

Aus needs to maintain high paced tempo today, otherwise I expect quite a close match up, but would go with Aus winning by 5-10. Lets go Patty&co!

Going to be modest with margin and say Boomers by 5.
Can't get caught up thinking past this game and possible future opponents.

Providing we win and Spain lose to USA then we walk away finishing higher than our bogey team without having to play them.

Its very much similiar to the Mavs, who would be a bottom 5 team without Luka. Similar as in Mavs, Slo has a couple of guys with experience playing in best Euro clubs and NBA besides Luka and there is always 1-2 of them that have a great shooting night, like today Dragic.

I don't know why people get caught up in what the team would be like without Luka... LUKA IS ON THE TEAM! You're not playing a Slovenia without Luka. The fact they may not be any good without him is entirely irrelevant. They've got a player who can, on his own, drag his team to a medal. I think it's about time we show them a healthy respect. Any game we play against Slovenia is going to be tough. Doubling Luka didn't work for Spain. Single coverage from Germany didn't keep him down for long. I think Australia 'maybe' one of the better suited teams to deal with him be rotating Thybulle, Exum and Green on him all night but even then, I wouldn't go thinking we have the foil to it.

As for Argentina, we walk in the game as favourites but it would not be the world's greatest upset if we were beaten today. Argentina has nothing to lose. No one has any real expectation of them. They're going to be coming in and throwing caution to the wind and they're going to believe they can knock us out.

I think we are the far superior team, and my gut says we don't lose today. But I am always hesitant to pencil in wins in these kinds of tournaments. If Australia has a bad game, and shots don't drop, and Argentina has a good game, and they make shots, then I think the margin for error is pretty small.

I think Australia by 8-10 but Argentina wont beat themselves. I hope to see improvement across the board for this team as we enter the prickly part of the competition;.

Oh sorry, they are now only no-good at all without Doncic. My bad.

If we can somehow make Luka not Slovenian by the end of the week this analysis will be uber-helpful.

Looks to me like they ar no-gooding without Luka all the way to an Olympic final four at least.

I feel this is the chance the Boomers need to take to rely on more players for offence rather than Patty shooting till he gets hot. It's a strategy that doesn't really have a plan B.

Thybulle is arguably the best player on the team, yeah he's there for his defence, but he's got the ability to score instead of deferring every time.

Jingles seems to be playing even at a slower pace, has plenty of open shots but seems to wait for the defence to get to him.

Kay and Landale have been great offensively, but seem to get there's from the scraps out of offensive rebounds or broken plays.

Goulding, bring him on early to see if he can hit a couple boosting his confidence going forward.

Hopefully that's enough rockets to get them fired up. Go Boomers!

Luka is 10 times better than Simmons, oh how I wish he was Aussie :)

"Oh sorry, they are now only no-good at all without Doncic. My bad."

Nope, it was said time and time before, you're only just reading it properly now.

Go back and watch how bad they are when Luka sit's after his 3 fouls in the Spain game, its terrible basketball, they were lucky Spain just didn't do anything to capitalise on it.

Yeah I think Goulding needs a real shot to get going. Even if he doesnt hit a single shot, it gives the defense another guy they have to park on at the three point line which can open things up inside for drives/cuts and post play.

I definitely think it's time to start going deeper into this team. We don't lose a lot going to our bench and it will mean we will be able to maintain intensity longer.

If Sobey can penetrate and defend as he did against Germany then that's instantly going to make us better for it. Hopefully that Sobey is the Sobey we see from now on. Give him a minute or two at the end of the first quarter and see which Sobey turns up.

I think Duop Reath on Scola maybe should be a thing.

I wont get too excited until if and when we're on the podium.

Oh Senator, I agree with you! They are so terrible. I have it on good authority that in the likley event Slovenia win a medal arrangments have been made by FIBA that an asterisk and comment will be engraved on their medals to say they were terrible when their best player was off the court.

(Don't worry FIBA are also preparing participation certificates for the Boomers in the event we don't get a medal saying 'we weren't as terrible as Slovenia when our best player was off the court).

SMH

Watching this game is going to he so stressful.

Cmon Italy

scores get updated so quickly ie as soon as shot drops, why can't all coverages be similar always a lag

"Do you not get that they are as good as they are because of Doncic?"

Didn't Slovenia qualify for the Olympics without the likes of Doncic and Goran Dragic, ahead of nations like Serbia and Czech?

Players like Tobey are legit, Zoran Dragic has been a very solid international player for a long time now, and other guys had to hit shots for them to beat Spain when they were tagging and/or doubling Doncic.

Nah Doncic played in those qualifiers I'm pretty certain.

Doncic played with Slovenia in the qualifiers and starred in eliminating Lithuania on their home court in the final spectacularly.

What's the record for replies on one thread? This one may give the title a nudge tonight.

Perth fan- But Simmons shuts Luka down to the point he's useless on the court

Unfortunately one showed up and the other didn't, so Simmons won't be shutting Luka down at these Olympics

What's the record for replies on one thread? This one may give the title a nudge tonight.

Feeling real nervous about this one.

Aus played with Slo in 2010 WC Round of 16 (Slo won by almost 30 I believe) and again in 2014 WC Preliminary Round (Slo again won by 10).

Great match up today with Patty vs Campazzo. I am expecting a close match, but Aus is a favourite, showed a lot more so far and has a deeper bench, expecting win by 5-10.

Please share Australian commentary channel if anyone knows.

Doncic played in 2017.

Olympics love to invest in novel and nauseating gyrocameras for the basketball, but can't invest in a second commentator.

rjd - 7HD.

This offence sucks hard

We suck. Nothing inside.

Subs please.

How do you miss the foul against Scola? FFS

Brick city.

Scola is a legend

bs charge call on Thybulle

Argentina are smothering Mills. Forcing others to score. But we can't hit our shots.

Ingles needs to step up.

Sobey time.

If they call those calls both ends Mills would shoot 30 freebies tonight.

Shitty quarter. Down 4 feels generous.

Aussies choking?

Absolute trash first quarter.

Worst quarter boomers have played since they named their 12

Pretty happy with that we've played poorly probably taken the Argies best punches and only down by 4.

Lucky to be only 4 down after that rubbish quarter

Thybulle on both ends. Lovely.

Matisse is a beast!!!

Can Sobey be off plz

Sobey FFS get off.

Zero interior offense. This is to watch so far

Nice foul by Kay to slow that drive down

Dont know why Goorj wouldn't leave Goulding on a little longer after just hitting a three

Agreed, Bol.
I would have left him out there longer.

>>Don't think Goorj was the right choice. Our offense is just awful<<
Agree. The offense is non existant

Needs to keep Dell out there. For some reason he keeps getting open threes.

I've seen clips highlighting the Boomers D, and commentary about Goorj as a defensive coach, but again and again the clips feature the defensive brilliance of Thybulle. I wonder how much our apparently stronger defense is just the result of having Thybulle.

Not having Baynes makes life hard rebounds wise

Argentina just surrounding the ref for a bit of light bullying

I wonder how much our apparently stronger defense is just the result of having Thybulle.

How did the Scola not get an unsportsmanlike for that?

In terms of the offence.

Playing great D this quarter. Causing havoc with this uptempo small ball line up

Fair point about the offense under Bogut. But I'd say our offense was still quite good in the 20 minutes that Bogut was on the bench each game in 2019.

Everyone in Australia who hates Goulding for his flopping can unite in their hatred of a new villain in Campazzo.

I enjoyed the irony of watching Sobey complaining about his flailing

Boomers getting some calls too, good sign, thank you FIBA.

Sorry Perth. Nic Kay is going to get massive offers overseas after these Olympics regardless of our result.

Good quarter, but we let them off the hook in the last few minutes.

So much for coming home to Perth, Nick. Oh well.

We're happy for Nick.

Even less chance he was ever going to the JJs

No need to tell Perth fans how good Kay is. We already knew. It's everyone else who seem to have been in denial until this past week.

13 field goals, 13 assists.

I don't think Kay is an NBA mould or "type"

That’s not a criticism of Kay, it’s an unfortunate bias nba clubs have that is gradually breaking down as we see more guys like Ingles, luka come in

As expected we took their best punches in the 1st and them shut down in the 2nd. Time to put them away in the second half and let the USA know what they're getting.

Zodiac it ain't that easy

Mills has done a few dumb things - that pass was just silly

Cry more bitch coach

Not sure if Argentina coach or Gleeson.

Landale busting it open now.

*If* the Aussies progress, will Baynes def be a non-starter? (ie no miraculous injury comeback)

" Landale busting it open now."

Nothing is busted open -zodiac you've got a penchant for terrible predictions

This last few mins falls Argentina’s favour - too much junk bball

I heard nick kay, James Ennis and Phil smythe is going to Perth next year

Yeah KET he is the master of that, it's really cringeworthy.

Exum forced to shoot the three - nails it and fist pump

Important hit by Dante

Googling FIBA headquarters brb

What is Thybulle's wingspan?

That was shit Ingles.

Wtf a foul on Oz

Argentina have the right idea here jacking the three and it's beautiful they keep bricking it.

Exums coming out party

Nice Dante. Good quarter from him.

Exum's done real well tonight.

Foot on the throat time now, percentage booster in the 4th!

Shut up pleasse

Argie are shot mentally

Oooh baby yeah

The Exum we've always hoped for has arrived

Holy sh!t Exum

With the exclamation mark!

Bang!

Thybulle!!!!

Nothing Dante about that dunk!

DANTE YOU BEAUTY

Exum is fearless.

They've had enough

I finally don't feel nervous.

Time to get some run into Reath

Thybulle's wingspan about 14ft, based on my visual assessment

Joey in another Boomers funk

Patty shouldn't come back unless absolutely necessary.
Reath needs to give Jock a break Asap

This has been a clinic we've completely shut them down since Qtr time.

Swarming D is awesome

CG43 going to work

This is who we should've played (and destroyed) in the 2019 World Cup Final.

Trademark CG dagger

This is fun :)

These camera angles are the worst thing to come from Japan since WW2

This is amazing.

Bring on our bench.

Landale's an NBL player and he's been one of our best players all tournament.

Crap take anon.

Great of the Boomers to host such a great party to signal the end of Argentina's golden era.

Bubbles flipping and flopping and hitting threes. Love him when hes on our team!

USA won't like what they're seeing here

What is Patty and Jock doing out there?!?!?
GET THEM OFF!!!

Get Mills off.

Rest!

Time to get Mills out.

Why are Patty and Landale still out there?

Get some minutes into Reath ffs

Sub him off! Sub him off!

Percentage booster anon :)

^ Agreed with the above

Rest some guys and don't risk a garbage time injury

Wtf get the starters out !

That time out was just so he could swing some subs.
But what a 4th qtr!

Boomers defense has been awesome. Generating offense from great defense

FIBA headquarters are quivering.

So proud of the team the Argies were never going to beat us but this is what you do shut them down and put your foot down on their throat, make an example of them.

Brilliant game by the lads tonight

Sobey!

https://imgflip.com/i/5igc50

This defense has been extraordinary. Definitely not just due to Thybulle!

Well done Reath

Green!

What have they scored like 25 since Qtr time?

32.

Argentina player crying on the bench. This is beautiful.

Clinic

USA are beatable!

I expected to beat them comfortably but I didn't think we would absolutely destroy them.

Respect to Scola. Legend.

Not so much for some of these other sooks in blue

Nice touch for Scola what a legend of the game.

Respect to Luis Scola. That was beautiful.

Imagine if we were on the other side of the draw. All well, will have to do it the hard way.

FIBA refs cant handle it lol

Green some really good junk time minutes

Just really good to see us play some incredible defence and play with such confidence offensively, perfect lead in for the SF.

18-22
21-11
21-15
37-11

Awesome

If the Boomers win gold I'm getting vaccinated

Scola absolute legend. Does he qualify as a Next Star?

United could pair him with Delly.

Don't ever underestimate the heart of a Champion

Best game I've seen the Boomers play, even more so than the USA wins.

Oh, and EAD anon #180!

It's a school night, but might have another cold one. Go the bloomers...

I didn't see that scoreline coming.

Bring on KD with that type of defense.

Hope to see Thybulle matching up on KD at some stage

>>Sobey a hot head with ego. I would take Josh Green any day instead of Sobey<<
Ok, we get it. You've established your dislike for Sobey multiple times. Seriously.

Great win but we never found that playbook.


1st order of business for Goorj is to instruct Delly not to shoot under any circumstances.

Haha, Sobey contributing to a great Boomers win is *really* triggering to some poor sap

Excellent D, Argentina was unable to get any looks they wanted.

Only issue is half court offense is stagnant at times.

Stylistically we match up well with USA. Its more of a like for like matchup than the other two.

If we play D like that, we're a chance.

>>Hope to see Thybulle matching up on KD at some stage<<
That'll be a great matchup. I think Exum will be assigned to him, maybe Ingles and Kay too, but ultimately you just have to do your vest against him and hope that KD has a bad shooting night.

So sexy.

Half court offence is really basic, lots of picks up top, and just trying to read and create but too often devolves into a 2 or 3 man game. Our half court sets at Rio and WC were much, much better.

But I feel like Goorj spends more time on scouting the opponent. The Boomers knew exactly what Argentina were doing. And the pressure from all 5 guys, the switching and recovering, communication was all spot on. We've been the best defensive team at the Olympics. Imagine we had say a (younger) Bogut anchoring and protecting the rim. Argentina mightn't have scored 50!

We have distinct strengths and weaknesses. Very reliant on Patty. But D was next level tonight.

Undefeated including warm ups, but opposition from here is a level above what we've faced thus far. We'll need to keep improving and keep stepping up.

Looking forward to it!

And yeah agree on Argentina, they totally over achieved in 2019. After watching some of their games I wasn't too worried heading into tonight.

Based on results to date, clear gap between top 6 and rest. Spain and Italy very decent losing Quarter finalists, and the top 4 haven't done a whole lot wrong at all.

This is where it gets very interesting.

So Argentina are no good after all and we are very good

33 assists on 35 field goals - brilliant teamwork!!

Gaze going coco bananas lol

As much as the offense doesn't look as smooth as 2019, turns out that the Boomers offense is ranked 3rd in the tournament (89.0ppg), behind Slovenia (105.8ppg) and USA (102.5ppg). I'd like to see defensive rankings.

Where does this win rank in the record books?

There can't have been too many Olympic quarter final wins by 38 or more

Great team performance. Chemistry within the team has been apparent in each game. Peaking at the right time, hopefully. Normally I'd worry about them having "won their final" but it was a massacre in the end so hopefully they're not in any way complacent.

I'm yet to see Reath make an impact you would think without Baynes that he would.
Thankful for Landale and Kay.

I agree with what ME said after the previous win - for the most part our half court offense looks disorganised, passive and without much clear direction - but somehow we're coming away with good scores.

Defensively there's no question that we've been locked in, and the length of Thybulle and Exum.has been exceptional.

I'm.hoping we can rebound better against USA, get a bit more inside action going offensively to detract from out obvious 3pt reliance and hopefully open up the floor against a long athletic thmeam US

[As much as the offense doesn't look as smooth as 2019, turns out that the Boomers offense is ranked 3rd in the tournament (89.0ppg), ]

On pure PPG we'd be #1 defensively I assume, or maybe 2 after France.

Our offense is good on transition or broken plays, or when Patty hits his stride. There are certain combinations and certain times though when too stagnant, no movement. There's been patches in most games like this. I don't think USA are necessarily the team best placed to take advantage of this though. They aren't a walk it up, methodical, grind team who will slow us down.

I miss Spatial Jam's Olympics stats analysis. It's hard to find any decent stats for these Olympics.

I've been fairly pessimistic about this team's play until now. I've seen clunky looking offenses, missed boards, and I've wondered how we're going to match it with some of the tough teams we will face later on.

Now, I don't want to get too high on one game, but I am absolutely buzzing about the Boomers prospects moving forward after that game.

The way we dismantled and literally broke Argentina was Dream Team-esque. One minute, we're grinding along with them, the next - splash, splash, splash, splash, splash. See ya later!

We kept them to 26 points in the entire second half and went on a 19-0 run of our own.

It seemed like once Exum made that absolutely ridiculous dunk, the flood gates had opened and everyone wanted in on the action.

Now, I don't want to project too far to our next game. I want to enjoy what we've done today. But you probably couldn't write a better lead in to a semi final than a 38 point win where everyone scored, everyone played, and your starting 5 only played around 25 minutes a piece. That's a far cry from the tired bodies we were bringing in at the last world cup semis and finals.

Either way, we've reached the same vista that other Boomers have looked on from - the top four. We are a single win away from Australian basketball history. And for the first time in this tournament, I think they might actually get it done.

Scola 20 years with Argentina:

#1 2001 Americup
#2 2002 Worldcup
#2 2003 Americup
#1 2004 Olympics games
#4 2006 Worldcup
#2 2007 Americup
#3 2008 Olympics games
#3 2009 Americup
#5 2010 Worldcup
#1 2011 Americup
#4 2012 Olympics games
#3 2013 Americup
#12 2014 Worldcup
#2 2015 Americup
#8 2016 Olympics games
#2 2017 Americup
#2 2019 Worldcup
#7 2021 Olympics games

He never decline the call to play for Argentina...

Yeah a lot of respect for Scola - a true competitor. The standing ovation was a touching moment that transcends the game.

I miss Spatial Jam's Olympics stats analysis. It's hard to find any decent stats for these Olympics.

Remarkably, Scola, as a 17 year old, was also in the 1997 U23 final when Argentina were beaten by Australia in Melbourne. So add a silver there to that list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an0CaWNjYjI

Thanks, Kobe, for that link. Excellent. Straight away looking up USA #1 in 3pt% (43.4%) while Australia is #2 in defensive 3pt% (31.7%). Nice.

Although those stats only include group stage. Just 3 games.

Remarkably, Scola, as a 17 year old, was also in the 1997 U23 final when Argentina were beaten by Australia in Melbourne. So add a silver there to that list.

Although those stats only include group stage. Just 3 games.

oscar schmidt probably more caps

"Enjoy it but we haven't done fucking shit yet. We're back to where we want to be and it fucking starts now." - Patty Mills in the huddle after the win against Argentina.

FIBA site at least has better stats info than the Olympics site, but nothing in depth.

Wikipedia pages for each national team often has cap numbers and leaderboards for player caps/stats.

Trying to work out if Caporn would've played against Scola. I assume Nielsen, Rillie and Smith all did, so that's three of the Boomers coaching/ops staff. Caporn might be a chance too if he ever toured South America or hosted Argentina? Two year age difference, so it's a possibility.

Edit: Oscar found the team list from the South America tour I was thinking about:

David BARLOW / Melbourne Tigers
Aron BAYNES / Washington State University (USA)
Matt BURSTON / Adelaide 36ers
Jason CADEE / AIS
Peter CRAWFORD / Townsville Crocodiles
Matthew DELLAVEDOVA / AIS
Oscar FORMAN / New Zealand Breakers (NZ)
Adam GIBSON / Gold Coast Blaze
Joe INGLES / South Dragons
Nathan JAWAI / Dallas Mavericks (USA)
Luke NEVILL / University of Utah
Stephen WEIGH / Perth Wildcats

Absolutely stoked for Exum. The confidence he is building representing his country is fantastic. Can only help his
career going forward, stay healthy young man.
Hope Simmons and Bolden are paying attention.

I recall Scola giving Gaze a shout out once he had passed him in World Cup scoring as he was in the crowd as a kid at the 1990 World Championships watching the Boomers. Such a basketball junkie!