Hoops

London 2012: Boomers vs Brazil

Sircreate, the Olympics is the wrong time to "try and get comfortable with the team".

At least Baynes hussles for boards and is active on D. Did anyone see the play where Brown tore Maric a new one for being too slow on the defensive rotation? At the last World's, Maric showed the same lack of intensity on defence. He simply does not hussle hard enough on D, is too slow to rotate and help off his man and gives up too many easy lay-ups. When he does help, he is too slow to recover, which is why teams target him on the penetration and dish.

If he is that casual on the help and recover against Spain, Gasol will go for 30 and we will get spanked.

ESPN has Gamecast Live on it's website for all games.

Not saying Barlow and Crawford couldn't play 5 minutes, suggesting their contributions to the team are relatively selective; i.e. Crawford primarily his 3 point shooting, Barlow his defence (allegedly) and that perhaps Brown's strategy for last night's game was to keep his strongest individuals on the court and see if they could pinch the win. As such Barlow and Crawford were not part of his considerations for last night's game and he wasn't prepare to divert from his plan.

I'm asking myself the same question as others, why did they not get court time. Our team does not comprise a starting five that is conditioned to play big minutes in tough games every second day over a one week period so possibly some consideration has been given to how, and when to use players strategically.

Will Brett's decision hurt the team's chances of getting through the next round? We can only speculate.

Vart, I'm with you regarding Maric. Baynes is more of a threat offensively, more active on the glass, and plays much better D. Maric lacks the intensity and desire that every other Boomer plays with. He looks somewhat disinterested the way he lumbers up and down the court.

The great thing about the Olympic basketball competition (and the world championships) is that few teams are expected to win all their games (with the exception of the US). As such, and unlike other sports, we do not see too many "minnow" type teams because most teams have earnt their spot in the competition. At best there might be one, maybe two (depending on the strenght of the host nation's team).

Why no Barlow, Crawford? Possibly keeping them on ice for the games that the Boomers have tabbed as "will win". I think the spin doctors call it "player management" and getting the balance between "burn out" and "peaking at the right time" is a key element to the success of the team's campaign, especially when every game is tough. FWIW, I don't think Barry Barnes showed much "player management" in Sydney, a competition I thought was our best ever chance of winning a men's basketball medal.

I'm not suggesting this is only reason why they got no burn, but it could be part of a broader strategy.

Good work by our guys to get so close but we didn't deserve to win it. I can't say the emphasis on athleticism over skills worked well tonight - better outside shooting would have made a big difference.

Did anyone else have the feeling that Brazil never really got out of second gear? While we struggled for most of our points, Brazil seemed to have it fairly easy.

Bogut could have made such a difference.

I say that, and it changes to a ho hum water polo match, followed by diving. Must get Foxtel.

Props to ch 9 for showing more Bball in one night than I have seen in the past two Olympics. Keep it up!

For the anon who has been constantly complaining that Barlow didn't see court time, you obviously haven't watched a Boomers game for awhile now. Barlow hasn't had a good game for the Boomers for a year or more. Can't remember the last time I saw him shoot with any confidence. Small chance he could have made life a little difficult for Marcelinho (best player for Brazil tonight?) with his length, but more likely would have struggled to stay in front of him.

As far as Dellavedova playing too many minutes, once again you are showing that you don't watch the Boomers much. He is the ONLY PG the Boomers have and it shows when he runs the offence. When he was off the floor, we had Ingles ISO's or a Mills shooting gallery.

Agree with the comment earlier about Newley and Ingles attacking the rim more. Would like to see more of that play they ran a couple of times where the big screens on the edge of the key for Newley to catch and curl to the basket. We really didn't exploit the lack of athleticism from Brazil's mid-size players in that way and could have racked up some more fouls on Varejao and Nene to keep them on the bench longer.

It was a good effort in the end to get back into the game, but it should be pretty clear to all the Boomers that we were good enough to beat Brazil. We fell short because we were too careless with the ball and continue to do a poor job of playing to our strengths and exploiting mismatches on offence.

Yes, but if Mills hits two more threes, we win the game and he is a hero. Tough to be the slightly underwhelming 'star' on a team without star quality. Sure we play better when we play as a team, but sometimes you have to have someone who just takes the game on their shoulders, win or lose.

Can't really complain about the game times...pretty good for us here in Oz...

Brazil defeated Australia 75-71.

Brazil
Barbosa 16pts, 4 rebounds
Huertas 15pts, 4 rebounds
Varejao 12pts, 7 rebounds
Nene 10 points, 7 rebounds
Splitter 7 pts, 7 rebounds

Australia
Mills 18pts, 7 rebounds
Ingles 15pts, 3 rebounds
Andersen 14pts, 8 rebounds
Baynes 10pts, 5 rebounds
Dellavedova 6pts, 3 rebounds

Also would of helped if Maric wasn't just a foul magnet!!!

Thanks Sircreate...some absolute crap being written about some of the Boomers in this thread at the moment.

Right with you on your take of it.

Aussies always live and die by the three. Today, it didn't work. But that last five minutes showed how we can play when we up the tempo. It was quite an impressive loss, if such things exist. Knock down a better percentage from 3, we win that game.

Admirable finish to lose by 4...

But in all reality, our three-point shooting up until the final quarter was woeful - we were 1/15 before Andersen and Ingles fired.

Couple that with some very poor turnovers, and that cost us right there.

Brazil were IMO the better team on the day, but we got so close without playing anywhere near as good as the Brazilians.

I guess that's something we can take away...but we can't do that again against Great Britain, Russia or Spain if we want to progress.

Andersen really stepped up for Australia in the 2nd half arguably his best shooting performance at a WC or Olympics.

Baynes was very good all game and kept us in the contest.

Ingles stepped up late in the game to help close the margin.

Mills was very good and at times looked like the only guy that could score for us.

I'm surprised Barlow didn't get a look in at least in the 3rd quarter when things were going awry, and surely PC should have got a look in at the 3rd quarter as well when we did not look like hitting from deep. Isn't that why we took him?

One more quick observation, we were impotent on offence with Ingles running the point, and looked better with Delly running the show, however I think the occasion may have gotten to Delly in this one and I think he will be better for the experience moving forward.

Brazil his both FT's...we need a triple and one miracle to see OT...can Mills do it twice in the same game? Ingles?

Mills with an almost miracle steal...

Ohhh SH&T!!!

Foot violation and a shot clock reset!!! We now have to foul....

Baynes, Andersen, Ingles and Mills are standing up at the moment...big defensive stop required right now but we can't foul and send them to the line...

Nice offence and score! 2 point game with 29.4 seconds to go! We need a stop and we have a chance to win....


Goooo BOOMERS!!!!!!!!!

Wow...Mills on a transition three-ball attempt misses, but we quickly drew an offensive foul and have the ball back with 39.4 sec to go trailing by 4.

Come on Boomers! A quick score here and stop for a chance to win??? Please!

Ingles getting involved - 4 points still with 1min to go

Andersen big rebound, Mills on a quick penetration...4 point game with 1:30 to go

6pts 2:08 to go

Gotta hit FT's now Nielsen...

Finally we are starting to hit from long range on an Andersen triple...5 points in it with 3:17 to go

6 point game with 4min to play on an Ingles triple

1/16 from 3pt range + turnovers the only reason why we are trailing right now.

Andersen's scoring is still the only guy keeping us in with a chance...

I still think our offence is better when Delly has the ball in his hands...

yep... better with Patty on the bench

The change up to a smaller line up and the resultant defensive pressure played dividends, whilst Andersen took the team on his shoulders and lifted our offense up off the canvas! Andersen seemed to relish the fact he was our go to player on offence and seemed to lift!

Andersen starting to come up with the goods! Great D at one end and Andersen putting points on the board

Turnovers are killing us right now...we are just another couple of plays away from potentially putting ourselves out of this game once and for all and we still have a quarter to go...

turnover
turnover
turnover
ridiculous foul (following a turnover)

goddamn it. Look after the ball!

Seriously, these refs are seriously bad. Seriously!

At least they are bad both ways, but gee wiz they are ruining the game...

We have been very sloppy offensively with some very poor turnovers...down by 7

Refs at this level don't usually call so many soft fouls...

Need to get some more movement early in offence and the ball in the hands of Delly...although I'm happy to see the ball in Ingles hands if the offence breaks down, but not at the start of the 24...

It was a great play called, but the timekeepers started the clock early! Aussies did the best thing they could do and walk straight to the change rooms and not wait for the refs to even consider calling them back!

Baynes has been good and kept us in touch late in the 2nd quarter.

We looked terrible at end of 2nd with Ingles running the show - barely anyone got a chance to touch the ball and he couldn;t take advantage of the mismatch..

Our 3 point shooting can't get any worse and we are only trailing by 1 at the half...and we were woeful on offense in that 2nd quarter...

I still reckon we look better offensively when Delly is on court running the show.

http://www.thefirstrow.eu/watch/132791/3/watch-olympic:-brazil-vs-australia.html

This link is working well for me and is decent quality...

Refs blwoing some very soft fouls both ways...Maric, Baynes and Andersen on 2 fouls each mid way through 2nd. 8-nil run by Brazil now has them leading by 3.

Australia only has 4 scorers so far...to Brazil's 8...

Australia up 1 at quarter time...

Looking forward to it! Heading to the pub with my mate to see the game.

What starters do we expect? I would think Andersen, Ingles and Mills are definites, but will Brown go for more size/ rebounding against Brazil's impressive frontline?

Was going to get Foxtel's internet TV service until I realised that those idiots have only made it compatible with some platforms (ie, ipad, xbox, samsung i-tv's). Nothing for PC users? WTF?

Anyway, lets hope the Boomers can get this one and make life a bit easier on themselves!

Court 25 Before Judge Boylan
at 10:00am S. Ninnis v. Dragons Basketball Pty Ltd (settlement conference)

any live streaming online anywhere?

Game time is 8:15pm AEST in Australia on Sunday night.