Hoops

Boomers v USA game thread

Nice article. The great thing about the Kiwi system is all the decoy action that makes you think it's equal opportunity, as the author wrote, whereas it is very directed to creating certain shots or executing counters off that.

It's a beautiful thing to watch, and glad it's not just our cousins getting to enjoy it anymore! Bogut is like our version of Pero Cameron on the international stage.

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2016/8/11/12432950/australia-team-usa-basketball-olympics-rio-2016-andrew-bogut

Nice article talking up some of the particulars of Australia's offense.

I suggest Team USA has more guys willing to pull the trigger on that outside shot than Serbia, who may be hesitant while looking for other options first.

The most surprising thing about the US is they seemed to have now way to penetrate the Australian zone. Pretty much everything they threw up was from three point range. They may have got some put backs but that was the extent of everything they did within 22 feet of the ring. I am wondering why Australia was able to keep them at that distance when they struggled to do that against Serbia.

My thought is that the US didn't win the game, Australia lost it in that last quarter with turnovers, lack of patience and rushed shots… In that I mean that the Boomers can do a lot to sort out their issues but not so sure that the US can.

If it does end up being a Gold Medal preview, it's shaping up to be spicy as fuck with all of the trash talk back and forth. The show ponies vs the Aussie battlers, All Stars vs role players with heart. A champion team vs a team of champions. If it goes down to the wire as it did today it would be one for the ages.

The blessing and The curse of Olympic basketball is that as good or as bad as you play in the group it all comes down to the first crossover match as to whether it's a successful campaign or not. We're in form and have put ourselves into the best possible position but that game will be tough and if we don't win it will be massively disappointing

Congrats to the team well done, great performance.

On behalf of a lot of people, I'd like to also say well done to one Andrej Lemanis.

Replay on now

Puerto Rico 92–73 United States

Lithuania 94–90 United States

Argentina 89-81 United States

Puerto Rico beat them 92-73

We are small outside of our frontcourt so always going to be giving up team rebounds.

I thought discussions prior to the Olympics was the that Thon and Simmons weren't ready and that Exum wasn't really international quality yet either?

Boomers have one major area to improve after this game: rebounding. The 47-40 rebounding disparity to USA doesn't really show how dominant USA was in rebounding because the Boomers missed 33 shots compared with USA's 53 misses. At one end, the Boomers had 32 defensive boards while USA had 21 offensive boards. Bogut and Baynes combined for just 2 defensive rebounds between them. Andersen had 5 boards, but that is just about as much as we can expect from him. The Boomers inability to clean up the defensive rebounds is really what gave USA the win.

Sure, USA put up a lot of 3s that lead to long rebounds, but is that enough to excuse the disparity?

And just imagine what that result would have been with Simmons and Exum involved.....

History became a lie.
usa a one point better team at this game.

Really hope they get through to the final now. As Bogut said they still have a lot to improve on, a replay will be very interesting

Was a great game. #unfinishedbusiness

Boomers were the better team throughout the game. USA just had the shots that dropped at the end. The plays that the boomers were pulling off were first class. I have a new found respect for Bogut's game. Boomers should be proud for their first 3 games.

He definitely googled how to at half time

Durant was nearly about to become an Australian citizen!

If carmelos other 6 missed threes went in who knows what might have happened

Really should have played another five minutes. I mean it was unfair we couldn't score and had to foul. I'm sure USA would have agreed to extending the game

Certainly anyone who watched the game and isn't a moron knows this was closer than the final result. Mills rimmed a 3 when we were 4 down with not long to go then we started to have to foul. If that shot had dropped anything might have happened

Paul George is a twat. He just can't accept that they almost fell today and that there is a masssive target on their backs now that the Aussies have shown it is very possible to do.

And you're right, officially the win was 10 points but unofficially it will always go down as the US winning by "ingles missed a shot and we had to foul"

Andrew bogut bringing some humility and perspective. Hopefully he can instill some of that into the you lot, ME particularly

"We still lost the game. It means nothing"

Coach K bringing some humility and perspective. Hopefully he can instill some of that into the players, PG particularly.

Anderson was used sparingly in last qtr? (if at all)
i thought with him being such a huge mid range threat it may have got us some better long distance looks down the stretch.

"If it wasn't for Melo keeping them in touch when the rest of this "C Squad" couldn't hit the ocean, then it might've been different altogether"

And if the Americans had shot well and the Aussies didn't this would be a completely different story and you'd all be stoked we only lost by 30

And like it isn't a C grade team lol

Steph, Russ, kawhi, Lebron, AD
CP, harden, KD, lamarcus, drummond

They've got their first choice small forwards but that's it

And this is heartening from the Aussie camp:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-11/boomers-match-it-with-usa-in-basketball-epic/7719274

A paste from the article says a fair bit about what some of our players are thinking:

"You don't get sh*t for small victories or moral victories," said Andrew Bogut after the game, which Australia lost 98-88.

"We're not coming out of this like 'this was an awesome game'. We lost."

Yet it was hard not to be impressed with one of the most polished performances produced by an Australian men's team at Olympic level.

"We beat a heck of team tonight," US coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

"They just played, I think, 'lights out' basketball."

Depends on the knockout game.

As long as the team acquit themselves well against Spain/Lithuania/Whoever I'll be fine. I'll be disappointed they couldn't go on with it after a good start, but content. Nothing wrong with playing good basketball and getting beaten on the day.

And the lead "ballooned" to ten because Australia had to foul while in the penalty to stop the clock. It was much, much closer than 10 points for the entire game. Obviously this troll never watched. Just another guy moving goal posts.

Some interesting articles out there:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/olympics/rio-2016/nba-star-paul-george-calls-australia-dirty-as-kevin-durant-predicts-rio-olympics-medal-rematch-20160811-gqq0s6.html

From the article:

US coach Mike Krzyzewski was full of praise for the Australians, describing them as genuine gold medal contenders.

Krzyzewski said the clash with Australia was their first 'real' match of the Rio games, taking plenty of positives out of a rare tough encounter for the team that has lost just five of 138 appearances at the Olympics.

"We beat a heck of a team tonight," Krzyzewski said.

"I mean Australia has probably played the best of anybody in the Olympics. They played three really tough opponents, us being the third one - they just played lights out basketball. They play so well together as one.

"For us I thought it was a heck of a win because we beat a really good team, an outstanding team that was playing really well. That's the first real, real international we've had. The first two games we played we were significantly better than those two, but this is the real world now. "

I love how people think that 10 points or "double figures" means a thrashing. Obviously didn't watch the game. One Ingles rim out from being down 2 inside the last 70 seconds I believe. It was a very close game.

If it wasn't for Melo keeping them in touch when the rest of this "C Squad" couldn't hit the ocean, then it might've been different altogether.

Great effort by all. Shame we ran out of energy in the last quarter. Now to keep up that high quality through to the gold medal round.

And, I hate to admit it but ... if Lemanis and co can keep up this level of quality, I'd be happy for them to keep going after Rio when we integrate our exciting youngsters.

Americans like to winge

I was wrong ME. They impressed the hell out of me today. That's also me up there saying if they don't win silver I'll be disappointed. Good try though.

But keep being a cunt. Suits you

Had a friend watching in the US and the commentators remarked that it looked as if the "Aussies had been playing together for 10 years".

Ringing endorsement of how the team has come together in such a short time, and how smooth the offense is.

Silly comments from George. There's a difference between playing hard and playing dirty and there were no plays you could class as dirty by the Boomers.

"So losing to a team that have hardly played together, despite the Australians having experience playing together AND playing out of their skins, means the Australians were superior?"

Sounds like the very definition of the word.

"Playing devil's advocate, touch wood etc. etc. ... but if we finish second in our group after beating China and Venezuela (as we should), and then put in a solid, competitive performance but ultimately lose to Brazil/Spain/Lithuania in the quarter-final, how will this campaign be judged?"

After this start it would be a disappointment. Top four should be the absolute lowest they come if we're being true to how they've started and the potential they've shown, but I'm thinking it's medal or bust now.

"Only superior at rebounding
Still won by double figures"

So the guy who predicted a blow out finally has found the courage to pop his head out with some inane crap. THe ultimate hater.

"Do you honestly think if every American was healthy that would be the squad they would send?"

I love how it goes from 'the USA could beat us by 40 with their C squad' and when we almost beat them "it was only their C squad". That's some classic goal post moving there.

I'll watch the Boomers two remaining games, but other than that I'll have all eyes on Pool B. Pool B is far more interesting, and there's already been a heap of close contests there.

You have the mighty midgets Argentina, who lack size and depth and are heavily reliant on a pair of 36 year olds who are playing as very undersized PF and C (Scola and Nocioni) but have a wealth of international experience with 4 holdovers from their 04 Gold (those two plus Delfino and Ginobili). With apologies to Steve Nash and Mike D’Antonio, small ball never looked so pretty.

Then you have the home town heroes Brazil, the youthful squad from Croatia who look like they’ll be an international powerhouse for the next decade, traditional powerhouse Spain who are out of sorts but can’t be counted out, and the Lithuanians- who don’t have many big names but consistently achieve great results in international play.

So superior on defense that a career 33% 3 point shooter just shot 9/15

So we lose the last two games and don't make the knockouts and it's still been a successful tournament AussiePride? Nooooo

We need to come out all guns blazing and put China and Venezuela away by 30+ each! Although I'm glad we have 2 easier games left, I hope we don't take it too easy, and come out slow in the QFs

We are apparently superior to the Americans on both ends because we have played together.

Yet the US, who played a couple of warm up games to get used to playing together won by 10.

How on earth is that being superior? OP has the logic fail I think.

1/10 insult neck self pls

I will be watching closely now to see how Serbia and France handle Team USA, two tough games for them after two soft ones before us will be very interesting...

I view the campaign as already successful. Playing the last 2 games of the preliminary round not desperately hoping for a win is a great thing for Australian basketball.

Anything from here is a bonus although expectations are high because of how well the Boomers are playing.

Je, it'd be judged as our best effort since Sydney, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Before this tourny, it looked to me like every team outside China/Ven/Nigeria had a serious shot at a medal. (In all likelihood that's 8 teams vying for 2 medals, since it's very hard to see the US not even getting Bronze).

I still think that's the case, but given the Boomers form over the first 3 games, I think the expectations have now risen to the point where *not* achieving our best result ever and getting a medal, will be seen as a big disappointment.

Most observers would say the Aussies have now proven they can consistently play at a level worthy of the gold medal game. Certainly, we've been comfortably the second best team to date. (Although, Argentina have been very impressive too- but in only 2 games). So that raises the bar. Based on the players comments, they expect a medal- and after the attention that this morning's game will get, the rest of the country now shares that expectation!

So losing to a team that have hardly played together, despite the Australians having experience playing together AND playing out of their skins, means the Australians were superior?

After these three games? Disappointing