Offense good, defense not good.

Atwell cooked on D 3 straight times.

Aussies hitting everything and a sizeable quarter time lead over Serbia

This is deja vu

Nice start, agree weedy Atwell beaten three times to easily.

Jade has got her mojo back

Turnovers really frustrating, tired of seeing them over n over again.

I want the Opals to make it to the final so they get humiliated by the USA

Melbourne showing me that she what a lot you have been saying. There is no Jokic in this side, hopefully we go on with it.

They wouldn't face usa in the final.

Opals playing confidently as team after France win.

@LV possible deja Vu, unlike boomers, opals have ~7/8 players that on their night can post 15+ points. Can run floor as well play team offence.

Very happy with that first half. Some things to smooth out but overall clicking very nicely, and Talbot on 2 is the only Opal with multiple PFs, so we're nicely set up for the 2nd half.
Defense is doing some nice work.

Ah yes, i stand corrected, they will get flogged in the semi finals instead

Can someone explain why Opals were $1.22 to win this but $3.30 to medal?

Is it a suggestion that Serbia's rubbish, Aus stands no chance of beating USA, and Aus a huge outsider vs Belgium etc (Bronze game)?

I wouldn't have thought we'd be that low a medal chance if we win this....

Melbourne, Smith, Whitcomb and George been good, still to many turnovers but looking good.

HT Aus 48-32 Serbia.

Group A turned out to be very weak.

Reduced turnovers and our D needs to improve or we will get slaughtered by the u.s by 40+.

Sandy took Atwell over Kunek. Great choice there!
You need European / International experience to play these games.
Not WNBL NBL1.

Do we care what the US will beat us by? We know we're going to lose, so we could rest our stars for the bronze medal game if we wanted to.

Good call, hoopie. A blowout is almost better for us in that regard as it won't tempt Sandy to run our key players into the ground in a game we're not going to win anyway.

Great to see Melbourne bounce back after she was benched for the second half against France. I knew nothing of her before the Olympics but great to see her redeem herself and play with such aggression and confidence. Incredibly impressed with Smith's ability to finish around the rim too.

(First things first, of course! Let's get this done tonight)

Bit of pressure and we break. It's the Australian way.

Be nice if Magebor could make a basket under the bucket

Yeah, Ezi has been uncharacteristically hesitant this whole tournament

We've broken to the tune of being 12-7 up this quarter so far

LOL Aus wont shoot like this again in this tournament.

Used up all there LUCK/bullets in this game

Glad they took Smith and not Garbin.
Squad badly needs a Swain.

Agree re Smith and Swain, Weedy.

It's the right time of the game to give Sami lots of rest so that she’s fresh(ish) for the medal game

Smith was never remotely in doubt for this team. She's been killing it in the WNBA this season after an excellent 2023 season.

It was between Garbin and smith, brondello said so in an interview prior.

Certainly seemed to have played themselves into a bit of form. Melbourne playing better although sometimes still hangs onto it too long so gets caught and loses control. George continued on from last game but Madgen back to normal.

16 point lead at the half, now out to 24 at the final break.
Hope you're taking notes, Boomers.

Cmon atwell, really stupid.

Dumb foul by Atwell, hey Jacket, you need a Nescafé.

Opals using up all there luck/bullets this game.
They wont shoot anything like this against the USA

Good time to put Borlase into rotation and rebuild her confidence. She showed what she could do in Brazil OQT

Instead Sandy is going with Atwell...

Hopefully both get a run this quarter.
Put 'em away, starters.

Smith been been fantastic, none better today. Melbourne just behind.

Team can't deal with pressure...

With a win, sandy gets the job again unfortunately.
Hopefully going forward she doesn’t keep all the vets until 2028.

Madgen back to her unproductive self.

The Refs must only have a certain number of blasts in their whistles as they are certainly not using them very often

It has been open season on Jade Melbourne all tournament

Burnin the starters...

Smith has been solid all game both ends of the court

Serbia's whole gameplan is throw Jade Melbourne to the floor, then act surprised when a foul gets called

geez put the bench on

C'mon Sandy, get the GOAT, Marianna and Izzy in the floor

Good news that Wally is ok

Bec Allen got her ribs crushed in the last few minutes vs Serbia 22 WC when win secured.

3min left 20+ lead and injury ridden Talbot, probably the player they least can cover was still on court!

This must hurt the anti-Sandy crew!

They're hating this win

Holy hell, Wallace looks bad.

Wallace gets on and straight away 3 turnovers. WTF?

Semi finals baby!!

Revenge for last night.

Well done Opals and Sandy. To put behind the Nigeria shocker and improve game on game.

A winnable game, and they executed and mostly played up to their talent. Go Opals!

Credit to Sandy and the coaching staff for getting the Opals this far and playing so well. I think the bronze is very achievable.

Yeah, I'm eating a bit of humble pie here - I couldn’t wait to see Sandy gone for the last couple of years.

Me too, top 4 is usually the pass mark for coaches to continue and they have done that, so congratz to them.
I don't think we beat the u.s but a bronze is possible if we play at our best.

Interested to see what they do with the team prior to the WC, surely they do not continue with the players who will be 37-45y.o.

Avg 21 turnovers.

Not that we have a pile of players knocking down the door demanding a spot, but it has been clear for a while that a major squad refresh happens after Paris.

Weedy, let us know who would replace Sami in this team?
She has been instrumental in us winning the tough games.
I'll agree that Jackson will be out, she shouldn’t have been here.
3 of the 4 younger players still need International experience, I mean playing in Europe.
Wallace gets on and her stats are 3 turnovers
Atwell get on and gets beaten on defence 4 times.
Enlighten us.

I could see Rocci taking a role similar to Sami. Or maybe Amoore? I haven't really seen her play but has some WNBA draft buzz and I think she's a combo guard?

25/26 season.

My assumption

1 of Rocci, Reid, Heal, Amoore
Melbourne
Whitcomb - 37/38 y.o off the bench -Captain
Swain
Borlase
Talbot
Allen
1 of Kunek, Blicavs, Atwell, Puoch
Garbin
Smith
Magbegor
Aokuso

Melbourne-?tbd
Swain-Whitcomb-Borlase
Allen-Talbot-?tbd
Smith-Garbin
Magbegor-Aokuso


Out
Wallace
Madgen
George
Tolo
Jackson

27/28 probably different again with young Hall, Somfai and other ncaa players.

Young names to watch out for imo.

5'8 Hall 07 CG
5’9 Deas 06 SG
5’9 Olechnowicz 09 SG
6’2 Shiels 06 G/F
6’2 Crawshaw 04 PF
6’3 Puoch 04 SF
6’4 Somfai 07 PF

Little but longer to wait for the others in same age group.

I forgot to drop off Madgen and Tolo.

Forgot 6'3 Fagan 08 PF

Jade's a blade!

Nice to see Kristy get some minutes after her injury, and the confidence sapping treatment she was subjected to at Indiana by some of their so called fans.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/basketball/nigerian-player-says-aussie-liz-cambage-welcome-to-change-allegiance/news-story/759beb5538ccf458e6f0d488431092bb

They can have her. Not sure why they'd want her though, they're doing just fine without that distraction in their team.

They are willing to put up with her for the high chance of a medal in 2026-2028.

Well done Opals for the win. The refs were a disgrace in this game. Repeated, high contact reach ins by Serbia when attempting traps; high contact body barging on our guards dribbling the ball up the court - just a fraction of these were called fouls. Unfortunately this is what one expects when you play the Serbian women's team.
I really liked how the Opals responded to Serbian physical assaults by amping up their intensity on defense, continuing to drive aggressively to the paint as well as rebound aggressively. Lots of chatter and intent expressed among the Opals during the game - I loved it.
Now the turnovers. After such a great performance I hate to join the Sandy pile on, but the Opals have been exposed as soft in handling a press, a situation Sandy is partly responsible for. Sandy needs to both (a) adjust her systems in the backcourt that better allows for presentation options for pass receivers; and (b) be more responsive in calling time-outs or sub out guards who are clearly struggling (eg Talbot). Here Sandy strikes me as either excessively loyal to her senior guards; or unable to recognize differences in the FIBA game vs WNBA.

The referees on occassions seemed to be just watching the game and not officiating such was the lack of whistling. At times the Opals were mugged and lost possession and lead to frustrations. Bit over the top when you speak to Brondello about negative reations from the players when it is the poor officiationg that caused it.

Still poor inbounding at times and dribbling to either corners or along the sidelines and getting trapped or bumped out of court with no call. The team as a whole are playing better but still erratic performances from some players.

A win or even a close loss against the USA is very unlikely although both teams would likely play a similar style of game so who knows what the margin will be. They are now in for a chance of a medal and who would have thought that after the Nigeria game.

We just need to keep our stars healthy for the medal game.

Cabbage will be 37 shortly after the LA Olympics

by then she'll probably have spat the dummy and left another two teams after pissing off her teammates, fallen afoul of the Chinese government and spent a few weeks where no-one was aware of her whereabouts, taken 12 months off the game, and then made another comeback for LA Olympics...where she'll sit at the end of the bench whinging while Nigeria bombs out in the preliminary round

Meanwhile Ezi and Smith will dominate for Australia.

I watched the game live and Smith was clearly our best player, checked the highlights on nines package this morning and never even showed her making a bucket, all just outside shots, it f..king annoys me.