The Boomers still have a chance of claiming a breakthrough medal in the men’s basketball, but it will have to be bronze after they were thoroughly outplayed in a 26-point semi-final loss to Serbia in Rio. Australia were swarmed from the opening minute and struggled to counter their opponent’s compelling mix of stingy defence and potent scoring, eventually going down 87-61 in a physical encounter.
Serbia’s women’s team had also knocked Australia out of the Games at the quarter-final stage, but the Boomers will at least have a chance to claim bronze when they take on Spain late on Sunday night, Australian time. “We have to regroup and figure out what went wrong with offence and do a better job,” Boomers assistant coach Luc Longley said after the game. “I haven’t really looked at Spain yet. They’ve been in the other pool. We expected to win tonight.”
Serbia out-hustled Australia in the early stages of the semi-final, forcing a glut of turnovers as the Boomers struggled to find space for scoring opportunities. Australia trailed by 11 points at the first break having shot an appalling 13% from the field while their opponents went at 53%.
There were brief signs that Australia would haul themselves back into the contest early in the second quarter but a combination of smothering defence and another stellar scoring performance from Serbian star Milos Teodosic kept the Boomers at arm’s length for the duration of the game.
The Serbian lead blew out to 28 points by three-quarter-time and Australian coach Andrej Lemanis wisely chose to rest his starters down the stretch, which gave the likes of lively Brock Motum an opportunity to impress. One major worry for Australia heading into the bronze medal playoff is the fitness of star center Andrew Bogut, who was limping noticeably by the time he was taken off. He and fellow big men Aron Baynes and David Anderson didn’t have the impact they would have hoped for.
Patty Mills and Brock Motum led the scoring for the Boomers with 13 apiece, with Joe Ingles contributed 12 in an up-and-down performance. So often the Boomers were pressured into difficult shots and nothing dropped from long range, with Australia managing only 13% from beyond the three-point line.
“We missed some shots early that we’ve made for the whole tournament. We didn’t execute on both ends of the floor. They picked us apart offensively,” Ingles said after the game, before foretelling a better effort against Spain. “We’re Australia, we’re not going to back down,” he said. “We’ve got a lot to learn in a short time. We’ll watch the film and learn quickly and have a look at ourselves.”
“At the end of the day we’ve still got a chance to do something that no other team has done from Australia. We’re going to leave everything out there on Sunday and take that bronze.”
Matthew Dellavedova, who failed to exert the same influence he’d had in the preliminary game win over Serbia, was a little more wary of his team’s upcoming opponent. “They [Spain] are another class four powerhouse,” he said. “It’s going to take a good effort to beat them.”
