The Boomers have gotten their 2019 Basketball World Cup campaign off to the ideal start, defeating Canada in their first match by 16 points.
Australia were the dominant side for most of the match, but a monster run through the early going of the second half for Canada meant the scoreboard probably didn’t end up reflecting the game.
The Boomers managed to keep kicking away from Canada every time they started to close the gap in what was an impressive performance.
However, Andrej Lemanis has plenty to work on with his side, with the Boomers making plenty of turnovers. They finished the game with 13, but made a number back to back during the early running of the second half to go with a number of poor shot options.
After the Aussies took a nine-point lead into the end of the first period and a 12-point advantage at halftime, they lost all of that advantage early during the second half.
The Boomers recovered but had the game tied by that point as Cory Joseph and Kevin Pangos led the North American’s onto the front foot in the contest.
With ten minutes to go, Canada had taken a one-point lead, only some superb shooting from Matthew Dellavedova and Patty Mills keeping it that close, after the Boomers fell behind by six points at one point during the end of the third.
Dellavedova, who led all scorers and finished the game with 24 points, was huge into the fourth period as well as the Boomers kicked up a gear and ran away with the game, while Patty Mills and Joe Ingles ended up with 15 and 13 points respectively.
Chris Goulding may have been the X-Factor off the bench for the Boomers though, putting up points in crucial situations throughout the contest as he ended with 16, while Jock Landale was immense across the game.
The Boomers will now move on to face Senegal in what is an incredibly tough Group H on Tuesday, while Canada will be in a must-win situation against Lithuania.
Australia – 108
Canada – 92
More to come.
jameswm
Roar Guru
We’re not exactly full strength. A certain All Star would make us a whole different proposition. How do the finals work?
Mark
Guest
Forget the rankings - look at the actual teams who turned up. Canada are missing most of their NBA players, and Senegal are poor (Lithuania beat them by 54). Most of the groups have an obvious top two, and so has ours - us and Lithuania. We played well for 3 quarters against Canada, but we should have beaten them, and we did. There are some really strong teams at this World Cup - USA (despite the absences), Serbia and France. Greece have the current NBA MVP who on his own makes them tough. Hopefully Australia at least makes the quarters. We may have to beat France to avoid the US in the quarters, and if we do then maybe we play Greece in the quarters then Serbia in the semis. We beat France in the 2016 Olympics and beat Serbia once and lost to them once in Rio, but both teams are probably actually stronger now than in 2016. If we get through to the final the USA will probably await.
jameswm
Roar Guru
It's a heap harder than Group A with China (30) and Poland (25). That group's a joke. Group B has teams ranked 5, 19, 32, 33. Group C has 2, 16 & 27. Group D has 4 & 13. Group E has 1, 17 & 24. Group F 8, 12, 28, 38. Group G has 3, 18 & 22. Group H - ours 6, 11, 23, 37. I'd say the hardest are: D - Serbia, Italy, Philippines Angola (last 2 soft though) F - Greece, Brazil, Montenegro, NZ H - Lietuva, Australia, Canada, Senegal Interestingly, here are the highest ranked teams not there: Slovenia - 7 Croatia - 9 Mexico - 14 Latvia - 15 I don't really know how strong some teams are at full strength, like France, Spain or Argentina. Watching, if you chuck Ben Simmons in our team, it would be a completely different ball game. The guy is so hard to mark. He needs shooters around him, and has Mills, Ingles and Goulding, and even Delly now. Jonah Bolden, Dante Exum and Thon Maker would help too, but Simmons would make us a whole different prospect. Anyway, next year.
Mark
Guest
The group isn’t as tough as some keep making out. We beat Canada in the end, dominating for 3 quarters. If we couldn’t beat a weakened Canada we might as well have come straight home. We’ll beat Senegal by 40, as Lithuania are currently doing. Lithuania will be the toughest match, but by that stage both teams should already have qualified for the next round.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Very good win Boomers, well done !