It is pretty obvious that my disappointment with how Australia played in their opening two group matches at the Beijing Olympics basketball tournament got read by the coaching staff over there, because they picked things up and won the next three matches.
Not only did they win, but they won with intensity and averaging 100 points each match. While beating Iran can be laughed at, beating (and therefore eliminating) the reigning European Champions in Russia and the demolishing Lithuania by 30 points are great results.
For all this hard work, the Aussie Boomers now get to face….TEAM USA! Sure basketball fans have hard of them! You may know a few players – LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh etc etc.
GREEEEEEEEAT!!!!!
Looks like it will be the playoff for 5th to 8th for Australia!
Forget about the pre tournament game where we just lost to the US by 10 points. It was the final game before the Olympics started! I am sure the US was looking ahead a bit to much and were trying out a few last minute things.
If Australia loses by less than 10 points I would consider that a moral victory. Actually given how they destroyed Spain and Greece, I think a loss of under 20 points is a victory.
If we win….well we can call it the “Miracle on Pine”, who know but I have to echo Australian coach Brian Goorjigan that this should be made into a Disney Movie.
But how can Australia win? Well we definitely won’t beat them athletically so a running game is not the idea. We can beat the Americans by pure hustle, good ball movement, good off the ball movement and shooting the lights out in the gym. We have to shoot like how we did against Lithuania with our big guys making their 3-pointers so it forces their big guys to come out, therefore opening up the lanes for our other players.
Australia also has more big guys that Team USA and we have to hope David Anderson, Andrew Bogut, Chris Anstey and Matt Nielsen get up and active on the boards to limit the fast break of the opponents and get a few offensive possessions for us.
Overall, for Australia to come close and even contemplate beating the USA there are a number of things that need to go our way. But the players in Team USA will not let this happen because they are too focussed on winning and will come into the game with all guns blazing.
I am just looking forward to watching the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment