Hoops

G1: Boomers vs Greece

Is he as quick now as he was then? I'm not sure sure...

LC, gotta agree with your comments. The boards worried me. Barlow, Neilson & Wortho didn't make as much of an impact at either end as I expected. Ingles & Newley did look good, but I would have expected them to totally dominate the poor opposition.

Wortho is not quick enough for the 3 spot kr...

Nielsen very ordinary! Aleks,Mills,Dell & Ingles were standouts. Baynes,Wortho & Newley handy.

The rebound issue screams one word...JAWAI

A couple of things...the Boomers were effectively playing their first game together as an Olympic team and were occasionally rusty on the defensive end, and are yet to find their offensive cohesion. However there were some really good signs.

The key takeaway from mine is that Australia’s best “quarterback” right now is actually Delly and not Mills. Delly arguably played his best game yet in a Boomers uniform, as he had an almost flawless game in running the offence. Watching him run the pick and roll with Maric and then Baynes was an absolute delight, as time and time again he was able to create and then find the open man for easy scores. His decision making was simply amazing, with a pass first mentality, Delly had a game-high 9 assists in less than 20 minutes of action – and importantly with no turnovers! He made great decisions including his own shot selection. Mills sliding across to the 2-spot will probably be our blessing in disguise as Mills simply did not look like missing an open look, whilst defensively Mills can take the opposition’s PG and Delly the SG as has been discussed in other threads.

The other promising aspects were the overall 3-point shooting - the addition of Mills and Ingles to the team has an immediate influence on that, but also the inside offensive play of Maric and Baynes. Baynes did not miss a shot all game.

There were three key disappointments for mine:
1) The poor shooting of Brad Newley
2) The ageing legs of veteran team Captain Matt Nielsen who struggled throughout the game
3) Australia got killed on boards.

I hope Newley can overcome his yips as his slashing and ability to finish on the break helps this team. Rebounding needs to be addressed ASAP.

It is worth noting that apart from the promising talent of Pappas, Greece really did not have anyone else that stood out apatrt frm some good rebounding from their big men. This Greek team is a far inferior opponent to what we will face in the upcoming Olympic warm up tour of Europe where they will first up face the might of Spain.

Nonetheless, this is a great chance for the Boomers to find their cohesion together as a unit and build some confidence prior to leaving our shores.

I hope Brown continues with his rotation where he sticks with the players we need on court to win the game. Crawford and Kcikert seeing viortually no game time is a goiod sign from that regard, and also Gibson not seeing huge minutes was also another good indicator - especially as Mills, Delly, Ingles and Nerwley (apart from his shooting!) were doing a very good job.

Great to see such a high 3-pt % (47%?) - big surprise.

Delly-Patty-Aleks-Baynes played well, but the rest just seemed to be going through the motions.

Without those 4, I reckon we would have struggled to win. We did it tougher than we should have against a woeful opposition.

And I almost threw something at the TV when the commentator talked about it being the Greek national team. BS - I don't even think it was their B team.

Nielsen is terrible, I'm sorry but he was just in the way tonight shouldn't of seen the court. Delly patty maric are gonna be dangerous come olympics. Maric is a beast!!!

Why would PC not get any game time when he killed it in the YouYi series??

I like Liz Cambage's beard on the background for the freezone stream