It will be on Kayo, the 3:30 start time for Perth isnt the greatest for me so will be hiding away from all things social media and watching it delayed tonight.

4pm start time in Perth.....

I think tip off is 4:00PM but show is on at 3:30

I noticed Finland are missing 2 or 3 of their main rotation guys from EuroBasket, based on the WC warm up games.

In Eurobasket Markannen averaged 27 or 28ppg and next was 12. He's the main man.

Finland are a classic Lauri gets 25 plus draws all the defensive attention so that the others that are shooters can knock down relatively open threes.

The scary part of that is 1) someone like Lauri can win a game off his own back and 2) if the others get hot, it's trouble

The flip side is, if you frustrate and get Lauri into foul trouble and the others go cold as can happen with all shooters, then Finland would look impotent and people will say "why so scared of this team?"

They’ll be a real hot or cold team, like Japan. The difference is Japan are playing at home but the Finnish have an absolute star they can rely on for a good 25 a game.

Surely Thybulle will smother old mate from the first whistle

Ngl, starting to get erect.

Australia by 15 plus, we are not pretenders.

I doubt Thybulle will go to Markannen.

6'5 vs 7'0 is too much

Also seems like Thybulle's defensive supremacy is strongest when starting off the ball, getting in passing lanes and pouncing as help defense.

I lost a reply on this.

I'm super nervous for this. We can't afford any slip ups and Finland definitely have the ability to cause an upset, particularly with our form being patchy at best in warm ups.

Yes we have a proven core and track record, but we all know its based on chemistry and cohesion more so that top end talent. It doesnt take much of a dip in that for things to go pear shaped.

Sorry, just jumpy on this one!

Yes well the scary thought is if we lose then it's a must win against Germany who are probably a top-3 form team in the world right now or our world cup is effectively over.

This pre-game ESPN panel is terribly underwhelming.

MaxM we had Thybulle guard Durant.

What's Lemanis up to these days? This looks terrible.

Watching on Courtside1891, the commentary suddenly stopped. Was the female commentator fired already?

These refs are about to make me throw something at my TV

I mean Ingles has been slow for a few years now; but man after the injury he's lost what speed he had left. Dude is nearly shot

Man we got some crap commentary on all 3 channels.

International basketball - tough stuff

Markkanen is damn impressive

I'm sorry but Ingles can’t be a point of attack anymore.

0 fight in this team atm...

Dammit not Lauri! :(

Markannan is killing us so far

This is rough. Hopefully the Ingles incident will fire up this team.

Not hating on Trev, but he's def not suited to working second fiddle off Casey.

Small ball is hurting at both ends.
No inside offense
No interior D

Long way to go in this one and I'm sure they’ll get it together. But damn initial thoughts are that this team looks disjointed as hell and are going together like a heater and summer at the moment

Giddeys going to be a superstar but Jesus Christ stop trying to make the fancy pass play smart.

Totally agree knockdown

Practice match = real game

Dante has been very good so far.

Getting hand on the ball is no foul, but what about hand only immediately after the release?

Giddeys play is showing just how much reduced space there is in the fiba game. He looks like he's contained in a box. Seems like our offence is basically Patty Mills iso.

In China. Just arrived today. VPN won't connect to Australia so can't watch on Kayo.

Until I sort something out I'm relying on updates here.

Snakepit, why not try Courtside1891?

Also if you thought the Boomers were small spare a thought for the Tall Blacks.

Snakepit Fan -Finland up by 3 with 2 minutes to half time

First game, but we have to use our depth and wear them down.

Boomers being whistled on the holds, Finland can bear hug but nothing to see (apparently)

Defense is turning up

Finland is tiny outside Lauri

Get used to the helter skelter style of play it's the new Boomers identity!!!

That the Boomers have been generally playing poorly, and will likely go in to the half with a lead, is remarkable.

A lil bit of emotion, cmon!

It's like the identity of this 2023 team. Look unimpressive, but somehow the score line doesn't show it.

They aren't playing poorly, Finland has thrown everything they have... boomers have absorbed it

Boomers by 12

Agree rjd,

I am confident Boomers have the talent and depth to see this out. Had a couple of breakdowns but have also had some unlucky deflections go in Finland's favour.

Boomers up by 5 at the half due to some great D and a bit more patience in offence

This is how we play now

Jack White good

Jack White good

Goulding? Daniels?

If that's the case, I'll pick Maker...

Was always going to be tough early, agree with Giddy over dribbling, settled Dow well back 2nd quarter. Inglis shooting very well. Every one contributing. I'll stick with 15 plus win.

Totally agree Patty"TheGoat"Mills need height

Love to see Ingles and Mills, our co-captains, being our 2 leading scorers at the half.

12+ win

Boomers too much size talent depth

Don't jinx us fellas!

And Boomers all need to box out instead of allowing those tip-ins grrrr

25 years ago John Casey picked 5 catch phrases and he hasn't thought to change them ever since

It changed for us when Mills when to the bench.

Giddey started driving and got the foils. It ticked over the scoreboard, to prevent momentum, and made Finland conscious of their fouls.

Once that happened, they started to save more, allowing us to get it over half court without Patty turning it over, and spacein the set.

Last play, cooks switched onto someone tiny and ran under the hops. Ingles still kept it, and fired too late...

Boxscore doesn't explain the play

Finland Coach = Doogie Howswer = Douche...

Exum is making things happen. Reath is cooking too. He should get more minutes instead of playing small ball the whole time

Exum really bringing it off the bench.

Dante Exum good

Some of these foul calls are interesting to say the least. Letting heaps go off the ball but calling soft stuff elsewhere

Exum might be our best player through the past 6 games?

Pinder or maker or both still needed next year

FSTOS

Boomers 66 - Finland 52 (3rd 1.11 left)

FSTOS

Boomers 70 - 54 Finland end of third

Exum sure has been solid in his minutes

Thanks for the updates. Eating great food and trying to politely follow the scores along.

Thanks for the updates. Eating great food and trying to politely follow the scores along.

Boomers 75 - 54 Finland 9 minutes left in 4th

Same score, Gids to the f/l makes 1st

And 2nd

Exum looking like prime MJ.

Like I said, never doubt Patty.

Lauri has gone cold had 11 at the half and only made on fg since

Boomers 81 - 57 Finland 7.24 ti go

Mills! FIBA Mills, we've needed you!

Boomers Patty is just different

Where are those panickers?

Time to rest Giddey, Mills, Kay

Boomers 90 - 61 Fin (4.00 minutes left)

Bring on CG and DD

I'd say White has taken Cooks minutes...

Happy to see White perform well. I've always thought his game would translate well in international FIBA ball. Only concern might be size.

Lassi Tuovi has settled down after being up and about in the 1st qtr

What matters in this, points diff or points percentage or head to head?

FSTOS
Final Boomers 98- 72 Finland

25 Mills
14 Giddey

19 Markkanen

Finlands shooting was poor

Good to see Patty knocking his shot again

Abalone, squid, beer, dumplings and a Boomers win. Life's good.

Gleeson voice is not great but knows his shit, good addition to commentary. Exum learned a lot playing out of Spain and Serbia in the last few seasons. Mills plus 33, White plus 25, both really good. Very good performance all round. Reath also doing well. Patty just got the rust out in the practice games.

The first half was tough, but the second half was really good.
Our team free throw percentage was really good.
I think team three-point shooting is going to be really important to beat Germany.

Are you in Tassie snakepit ?- that is a Tasmanian menu

I'm in Shenyang Nth China. First visit since pre COVID. Food is freaking awesome.

Is FIBA Patty back.

A very nice first up win. Some sloppiness early, some good early hysteria on here too, but once they got the mix of intensity and smarts right defensively that was a lockdown.

Nice to see Patty play well, not that it was ever in doubt. Giddey struggled early, trying to do too much, but adjusted quickly which was a relief. We need him making good decisions.

I just love what White and Cooks bring. The way they defend, run the floor, screen, dive to the rim and hit the o-boards is just a perfect fit for this team.

Boomers would have done better in the first half if they hadn't gotten up at 4am yesterday.

???

Minutes watch:

29 Mills
25 Giddey
20 Ingles
20 Kay
20 Reath
18 Thybulle
16 Exum
15 White
15 Cooks
14 Green
4 Goulding
4 Daniels

Back story to the 4am callup please.

There was a missile launch for North Korea that went awol and crashed into the sea and there was a worry it may land in Okinawa so there was a late night warning call to everyone in the city.

What a luxury we have in distribution of minutes. We will have some fresh legs in the tournament.

Damn you Kim Jong Un.

The first quarter was particularly woeful and hard to watch but given we inexplicably remained in the game despite it, I couldn't imagine us losing when we actually switched on, and that we did.

It was a 17-4 run for the Boomers and a 45-40 lead and I don't think we were ever headed after that.

Some interesting takeaways:

- The minutes split bodes well for us. With everyone hitting the floor and only Patty playing more than 25 minutes we should be walking into our second game with Germany relatively fresh. Despite having a dangerous big in Markkanen Duop Reath wasn't asked for any more than 20 minutes today, giving some faith in the small ball line up and the ways various guards and forwards were able to contain him.

- We won the rebounds 41-32, we also outshot them 30%-23 from the three point line, owing to incredible close-out defense. This is a game plan that should carry over to Slovenia as well. You may argue that Slovenia is a better team than Finland but they've got one dynamic threat, and then shooters packed around him. The jist of this game suggests we have something for Slovenia.

- The offense was ugly yet still managed to score almost 100 points. I don't think anyone would call this offense pretty. It doesn't look like those poetically scripted plays of the Lemanis days. And yet somehow, the ball is making its way into the basket. And the encouraging thing is it looks like we have a long way to go yet in improving in that area.

- The return of FIBA Patty, Jingling Joe, the emergence of Giddey, Exum an excellent back up point guard, Jack White and Xavier Cooks in all the right spots.

Overall, I am pretty happy with the final 3 quarters of that game. We still have a way to go to really reach our ceiling but the ceiling is clearly very high. Germany is a big test coming up, and I guess my concern is whether we've quite ironed out everything we need to before that game. I am very much encouraged by the fightback shown in this game, and all the adjustments they made to turn a potential nightmare loss into our biggest world cup win since 2014. It should be remembered that Finland aren't total ass either. It's not like this was a 26 point win against Iran here. They made the semi-finals of the Eurobasket so can make claim to be among the best European teams. What they don't have, though, are the kind of consistent runs on the board that the Boomers do, a program that has now been in the top echelon of world basketball for a decade now. So we have a wealth of experience in our coaching staff and team to fall back on, and we never looked too rattled at any point. Next stop, Germany, and hopefully we can get the win there then use the Japan team to a) win and b) also look at a few more things and really hone in on ourselves as we move into hopefully the second round of this tournament.

A little bit surprised they kept Mills on aslong as they did when they were up almost 30

Would have preferred Kelsey Griffin special comments over the 'very dry' Bec Allen...

Agree
Griffin very good.

Meadows everything is over the top, Allen dry, pitman meh, Gleeson, why...
They saved some money on flights I guess.

"A little bit surprised they kept Mills on aslong as they did when they were up almost 30"

He was finding his shot so I think they wanted him to just keep shooting.

I enjoyed that, including having to fight back from a rough start.
Positives for most players to carry forward from that performance.

(Still kinda stressed about what happens when we face more quality bigs though)

Some interesting reffing out there, but thankfully we managed to ride through it. Will be interested to see whether they try to replicate that for the rest of the tourney.

Reffing was pretty dodgy - about on par for World Cups isn't it.

I absolutely love Exum and what he brings, always been a big fan

Loved that. Love love love. So many positives. Especially

Fiba Patty is back

Exum showing again why many thought he deserved an NBA call up after Tokyo. Glad it happened

White and Cooks playing their roles and having an impact

Aussie defense super disruptive and leading to the fast game we wanted to see

On an unrelated topic...why is Gaze commentating Germany Japan but not the Boomers!?!!

"On an unrelated topic...why is Gaze commentating Germany Japan but not the Boomers!?!!"

Because there is a God after all.

Managing his boomer minutes

Because the Germany v Japan game was probably using the FIBA/Courtside1891 feed. Gaze was also commentating the Australia v Finland game on the FIBA feed, so it seems he will commentate all Group E games.

Was the female commentator fired already?

First quarter is whatevs

Fin thru everything they had at the boomers and were pretty much cooked halfway thru the 2nd quarter

Finish that game thinking most these teams aren't gonna last 4 quarters with us

"Finish that game thinking most these teams aren't gonna last 4 quarters with us"

Agreed. We're showing a great ability to eat punches. There's a saying, 'it's not how hard you hit, it's how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward'. We seem to just push through adversity. We showed it against France and now against Finland. That's what medal sides do.

I think we're going to grind down Germany, Japan (easy W), Slovenia (and a lot of the game plan from last night will follow through) and whoever else comes from the opposing group. But the situation gets a bit spicy in the quarterfinal. Last night's France v Canada thing has shown me we absolutely DO NOT want Canada but I think the blueprint for beating France is now well established. France may be suffering from a bit of aging. And with our ability to go deep and keep running at them I think we have the ability to beat them and perhaps even comfortably.

The path to a gold medal game

Germany - Japan/ Second group Slovenia and an Also-Ran/ Quarterfinal one of France/Spain and Canada (if we top group, should miss Canada) - Semi - one of Italy, Lithuania, USA, Serbia (if we are the best in our group situation once more, dodge USA) - Gold medal game against either Canada or USA.

The quarterfinal game is our medal game as far as I am concerned. Win that, and I give us a fantastic shot of beating one of Italy, Lithuania or Serbia from a much weaker side of the competition.

Tomorrows game against Germany is a big one - both literally and figuratively. We will get to see how much size really matters in this tournament. Having seen their result against Japan and after our game I am more confident about a win here than I was yesterday morning.

"Tomorrows game against Germany is a big one - both literally and figuratively."

It will be important to play with consistent defensive intensity.
Green/Exum should have the assignment on Schroder, denying both the shot and inside feeds.
If we can defend well like the previous game, it should generate transition offense.
In the half court, the 3 needs to drop to open the interior and allow for penetration-score and/or dish off to back cuts and screening rolls & trailers (Cooks, White etc)

The reffing will be interesting given our defensive focus.
Some of the calls in the Finland game were *very* soft

That was a very good win I loved our defence and hustle. Good to see Patty get going and some impressive play by Exum and Cooks too. Should be much tougher competition against Germany though.

We are a better side overall than Germany, but watching the Japan game (who are obviously more undersized than us... considerably so) they are a good example of a team who's biggest strength (literally) is our weakest link. Definitely a danger game.

Boomers vs Finland Boxscore