Hoops

Angola vs Australia: 2014 World Cup

Ray Gordon wouldn't have tanked.

Anyone with their eyes open would have known that it was in Australia's best interest to lose. We were joking on here about that 22 hours before the game.

What is extraordinary is that the betting agencies didn't suspend betting on the event, because it was never going to be a fair fight between two teams who both wanted to win.

i knew they were gonna tank this game from the tip off


what a shame

stooping to soccer styled tactics to get further into a tournament

this is for the world cup

where is the honour?

despite all the drama & bullshit

Yanick Moreira played a great game of basketball

looked like a young Kevin Durant

Is the meaning of `tanking' really just match fixing?

some times you need to lose a battle to win the war.

A well thought out strategy by Lemanis

If the Boomers win a medal, who will remember this game.

It WASN'T a dead rubber for Lithuania. They had something to gain from the result, the same thing that Slovenia had to play for...1st place in the group and an easier crossover opponent.

^this

Ahhhh..so this is why Adrian Hurley was selected on the Boomers coaching staff...He has previous experience in losing to Angola. He has created history now being the only person to have been involved in 2 losses to Angola. Congratulations Adrian and well done to the Boomers on showing how to play the game at an elite level

I enjoyed seeing our bench playing okay basketball in the first half.

The tanking was blatant however, more so the coaching than the players. Did anyone else hear Lemanis' "You 4 to the offensive glass, Dante you've got safety"? early in the 3rd quarter? Jawai didn't come off until he was ready to collapse. Everyone was obviously told to play their men tight on the perimeter with nobody tasked with guarding the paint if a defender got blown by... I could go on but won't.

Unsporting.

Yeah, yeah, "smart", "everyone does it" etc etc, but its still unsporting. Resting your starters in a dead rubber is one thing, but let the players on the court try and win the game. And yes, it did work out for us with Lithuania beating Slovenia. But I still woke up with a bad taste in my mouth.

Meant for anon #492205

To play D the way we did in the last part of that game in particular wasn't what we are used to seeing from an Aussie team anon^.

I was refering to how we let them score and how the pressure dropped off, it wasn't our way of playing D anon, that was my point, I get that we did what we did for a reason.

I hope we can turn it on for the rest of the tournament, then we can forget this dead rubber...

I'm very glad the coaching staff had the sense to get the most out of a dead rubber, I'm only sorry that it did not send italy or Cuba direct to the USA

Oh, did I like what I saw last night, not particularly.

I did watch the game v Angola, what can we take from it, well it was of course obvious that we rested our starters and didn't get back to cover the fast break often enough thereby giving the result away.

In the end it wasn't very Aussie like to play that way and you never want to flirt with winning form, but now we get to prepare for finals and really if we blow this opportunity given to us by Lithuania we should then look back at this as a poor performance.

If we get a medal because of how things have panned out we will all be talking very differently I believe...

Complete tank job, an analysis of the second half shows some interesting video. No Boomers in the lane for defensive rebounds, 3 Angola players fighting for the rebound nu-contested. No reaction defensively to Moreira taking over. Running the shot clock down on offense and then taking contested 3's. Single coverage on the block and simply letting them turn the corner with no pressure, leaving the lane wide open on defense. Well done Boomers, but not a good look. I think FIBA needs to look into this, one option is to reset the rankings after the group stage based on win/loss and % e.g. 1 vs 16, 2 vs 15 etc.

"Litho could have rested their starters and finished 3rd like everyone here is trying to push as the right thing to do to avoid the US"
The alternative for the Aussies was second and the US. The alternative for Lithuania was first and an easier run. Lithuania wouldn't have played the US regardless of the result against Slovenia, so they had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Whereas if the Aussies had won, that wouldn't have been the case and Lithuania would've tanked, and the Aussies would've been stuck with the US in the quarters.


"And the difference is Lithuania is too proud to TANK, no matter what the circumstances."
No, the difference is Lithuania had something to gain by winning.

Im saying I do have a clue. Litho could have rested their starters and finished 3rd like everyone here is trying to push as the right thing to do to avoid the US

"Umm by tanking if litho lost they tie you for second you win on head to head..you go to 2nd correct?"
Why would Lithuania care where Australia finished?

Umm by tanking if litho lost they tie you for second you win on head to head..you go to 2nd correct?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcqvIyiEn4I

Great effort on the break

"By tanking you did absolutely nothing except give litho incentive to do the same."
WTF? Winning gives Lithuania an incentive to tank, losing gives Lithuania an incentive to win. Which they did. So it worked perfectly.

Do they sell clues anywhere near you? You should go buy one.

Slovenia scored 2 in the final qtr!

Spot on Paul. Game up for grabs and SLO falling apart right now!

By tanking you did absolutely nothing except give litho incentive to do the same. And guess what..you'll still get the US and get killed now that you've obviously told them you dont think you can win..you've embarrassed yourselves for no reason oh yes there was ..because euros have been doing it for years..aussie pride!!!

Bairstow and Exum very lucky to have already signed contracts in NBA. Based on their D last night they wouldn't get an NBL gig.

Hahahaha, a lot of dramatic posts on here.

Lemanis following Brett Brown and the 76ers tanking strategy to get ahead. Nice work and absolutely nothing wrong with it, beats getting slaughtered by the States.

Lot of Pot.Kettle.Black going on here.
How many other World Cup teams have done the same in the past .
How many AFL or NBA teams have dropped dead rubber games to get a better draft pick. Listen to yourselves , you all sound like a bunch of whingers.

Trolls are out in full force tonight !

Recap up on PnR:

2014 FIBA World Cup: Angola overcomes Boomers in dead rubber

In reality nearly everyone there is playing for bronze. They're not stupid, they know it'll take a small miracle for anyone other than Spain and USA to play for gold and silver.

Still gotta beat Turkey or Dominican Republic or it is all for nothing.

Yanniss nice trolling. Really top quality. You're upsetting so many people, look at how angry we all are at your snarky jabs. Keep it up dude!

Anyone with half a basketball brain could see the obvious matador defense..lack of hustle on transition and no ergency to rebound or help.

Fine rest your stars but play it straight

I thought the goal was to win..not just finish with a medal. If you dont believe you can beat every team then why even play..just because teams have done it for years doesn't make it right. Have some pride and finish where you deserve. No usa team would ever tank too much pride. They could never show their faces at home

Lithuania have no reason to tank tonight. They can now only come first in group with a win, or third in group with a loss. The next game is a straight up and up fight.

@jimmy needles Goulding can play better D than that. Was decent at it in his Summer League stint.

Why would Lithuania tank? If they win they now take top spot in the pool. Unless you think they're scheming to get rid of the Aussies 'coz they're so scared of us?

Oh dear, teams have been doing this shit for years...get over, move on from your amateur ways and we may actually get a chance at a medal.
Get down off your soap box you dickheads !

If you're upset about this result. Try to remember: It's not a poor reflection on the quality of the team, in fact it's the opposite. Australia's excellent play earlier in the tournament allowed them the luxury of losing this game with no bad consequences. Other teams haven't played as well in the first few rounds and are fighting for their lives but we had a 'friendly' training run and are still in a great position looking forward.
This was a smart move.

Real nice of the Boomers to help Moreira get closer to a NBA contract.

I will be honest, Australia now has a great opportunity to get into the top 4.

Next two match ups looking at Turker/DR and Slovenia. Turkey/DR - AUS would be favourites and Slovenia a very winnable game.

I have no issue with the tanking. Surely Angola would have known Australia were going to tank or switched onto it pretty early?

Piss poor....#unaustralian

I cant believe a country would tank..shame on you Australia. Does anyone else believe in integrity...I am just in shock..cant wait to see what excuses he comes up with at the end of the game..

Settle down Adam LOL

Boomers are really winning at this loss.

So...who put their bets on Angola earlier?
How much you gonna make with your fearless upset prediction?

timmy, I put $100 on Angola.

Looking at $550 return here in NZ

Goulding and Dante have played themselves into starting spots surely.

Honestly, I think if the "tiebreaker" system was a more simple points for/against, calculated from ALL group games (not just between the teams that were tied) there would be an incentive to win every game by as much as possible and this kind of farce mightn't happen.

Or is there something I've overlooked?