Before the warm-up games, it was hard to see the Boomers having a realistic chance of beating Canada at this year’s Olympics.
But the fact there is a general sense of disappointment, like Tuesday’s loss was a missed opportunity, speaks to just how far this team — or at least the perception of it — has come in a few short weeks.
What was described and still is probably accurately termed a “pool of death” suddenly looked beatable when you considered the way Australia performed under Brian Goorjian, especially in the tournament opener against Spain.
Just as Australia looked like kicking away, FIBA’s No.2 ranked nation kept fighting back until a few 3-pointers down the stretch secured a 12-point win and gave Boomers fans a reason to be cautiously optimistic ahead of the game against Canada.
Even in defeat, the first half still offered a glimpse of what this Boomers team is capable of on the international stage with Josh Giddey taking over and Dyson Daniels wreaking havoc on the other end of the floor.
But there were also some genuine concerns to be laid bare in that 10-point defeat as the Boomers prepare to face Greece on Friday night at 9.30pm AEST, with a chance to punch their ticket for the quarter-finals.
Here, foxsports.com.au looks at a few key talking points to come out of the loss to Canada and what lies ahead against a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Greece side.
CANADA TURNED UP THE HEAT… AND THE BOOMERS HAD FEW ANSWERS
That was one of the biggest takeaways from Tuesday’s game.
Everything was working for Australia when Giddey was getting to the rim, providing a constant source of offence for the Boomers as they out-scored Canada 30-16 in the paint on the way to a 49-45 halftime lead.
But then Jordi Fernandez countered by putting former Oklahoma City teammate Lu Dort on Giddey while also making adjustments to get Daniels off the ball and get Canada’s better offensive players onto Australia’s other guards, in particular Giddey and Mills.
Meanwhile, on a broader level, Canada increased its pressure and defensive intensity and the Boomers had no answers or counter-punch.
Instead, the result was a flurry of turnovers which only played into Canada’s strengths as a long, athletic team that thrived pushing the ball in transition.
Boomers coach Brian Goorjian said as much about Canada’s physicality after the game, while also ruing Australia’s issue with turnovers.
“Fifteen points off turnovers in the third quarter gave them the cushion that was the game,” Goorjian said.
“They have multiple guys coming in that can put heat and pressure on the ball. We had trouble getting into anything in the second half.”
Turnovers had been a problem for the Boomers throughout the warm-up games but they hadn’t been punished up until this point.
The solution may be leaning more heavily into the defence as the team’s greatest strength, at least that is what Boomers great Andrew Bogut would like to see moving forward.
“I’d like to see us focus a little bit more on the defensive end, because I just don’t, and this isn’t a knock, I just don’t trust our offence to be (like that of the) first half (of the) Canada game on a consistent basis,” he said on NBL Media’s The Gold Standard podcast.
“It’d be silly for you to think that that’s going to be a norm. I think we got tricked into a nice flow offensively, everyone was feeling good. It tightened up in the second half. That’s when we got a rebound to our defence and really kind of hold our hats on.”
The other issue for the Boomers is that when Giddey’s offensive rhythm was stifled, the only period where they really looked like steadying the ship was with Dante Exum running the point.
Exum added some much-needed direction to Australia’s offence as a floor general while like Giddey, he was also proving himself a genuine threat of getting to the rim to help open shots up for his teammates.
The issue though is that some of those teammates weren’t making the shots.
‘HOT OR NOT’ MILLS
Which brings us to Patty Mills.
This sort of performance wasn’t a surprise. Mills had two cold shooting games to open up the pre-tournament schedule before really starting to get into his groove against Serbia and carrying that momentum into the Olympics opener against Spain.
The issue for the Boomers is that when Mills isn’t shooting well, and that was always going to be a possibility in this match-up against Canada, he is too much of a negative on the defensive end and not enough of a driving threat to justify giving big minutes.
As Bogut put it after the Canada game, Mills is “either hot or not”.
“We probably need more of a balance from him at times, especially when his shots not falling,” Bogut said.
“I thought the defensive end, he was not very good. The shot with Patty is going to come and go. He’s going to have nights where he’s 8-for-10, he’s going to have nights where he’s 2-for-10, but he can’t take those gambles that he was taking last night defensively on big possessions.
“One late where he gambled on Jamal Murray at the elbow to try to get a steal with six minutes left and they swing it to RJ Barrett in the corner. Huge, huge, huge possession.
“Gets them from a six-point game to a nine-point game late. He did a few of those throughout the game. He just needs to stay a bit more solid defensively.”
WHAT TO MAKE OF JOSH GREEN’S TIMID START?
It isn’t just Patty either. Josh Green’s offensive output has also been a concern, but for a different reason.
Mills is taking plenty of shots — they just aren’t falling or he isn’t picking the right moments. Green, on the other hand, has looked hesitant with just two 3-point attempts in his first two games.
That has a flow-on effect onto the other end of the floor too because it means Goorjian hasn’t been able to play Green as much as he may have liked as one of the Boomers’ better defensive options outside of Daniels.
In essence, even if a team looked to repeat what Canada did on Tuesday and use screens to get Daniels off the ball, switching onto someone like Green would hardly be ideal.
Speaking on The Gold Standard Podcast, Bogut said he believes Green is “struggling to figure out where he fits” in the Boomers’ offence.
“He’s very good defensively for us but you see it on the offensive end, not knowing when to go, when not to go, when to shoot the ball… you can see he is overthinking things a little bit,” Bogut said.
THE ONE BIG ‘CONCERN’ BOOMERS STILL HAVE
It isn’t just Green though that seems to be struggling without a clearly-defined role.
Bogut was firm even before the Olympics started that the Boomers didn’t have a clear go-to line-up, describing it as a “concern” at the time.
Coach Goorjian tightened Australia’s rotations against Canada primarily to just eight players, with Matthew Dellavedova and Joe Ingles not getting any playing time while Duop Reath and Will Magnay saw very limited minutes.
The minutes without starting big Jock Landale remain a concern, but even if he is the clear option in the five-spot, who else is Goorjian putting around him with the game on the line?
Well, Giddey is clearly one of those players as is Daniels.
You could argue Exum deserves consideration given it is handy having a secondary ball-handler on the floor with Giddey and Exum is also comfortable shooting it from deep if given the opportunity.
Nick Kay is someone Goorjian trusts, although against a smaller Canada side it was probably a mistake to give his as many minutes, especially with versatile options like Green on the bench.
McVeigh could even come into calculations, even if it means giving up an advantage on the defensive end to strengthen the team’s outside shooting.
All of this is to say that even if there seems to be a clear eight-man rotation Goorjian is working with, who the Boomers will call on when it matters most still remains unknown.
It could very well be match-up dependant but if that was the case against Canada, you would have expected Mills and Kay to see less time.
Bogut said Goorjian was “kind of clutching at straws” and “throwing random line-ups in there” while Brad Newley suggested getting Exum in the closing line-up.
“Goorj was scrambling, throwing a lot of things out there,” Newley said.
“I thought the return of Dante was pretty impressive. He gets a nice look early, he gets a layup that would have been great for his confidence. So, is that something they may need to look at, getting Dante out there with that closing kind of line-up?”
It was Exum’s first game of the Olympics after missing the opener against Spain through injury and he was highly productive with 15 points in 17 minutes.
“He was key tonight and gives us a better chance to go where we want to go,” Goorjian said of Exum after the loss to Canada.
“His size and physicality to create for others was important.”
LOOKING FORWARD TO GREECE
For all the question marks surrounding Australia’s best line-up, the equation for the Boomers on Friday night against Greece is much more straight-forward.
At least, that is true if the Boomers win. Should they do that, a quarter-final berth is guaranteed.
At this stage, it looks the likeliest bet that Australia will finish second in Group A given Canada is favoured to beat Spain and go into the quarter-finals undefeated.
Finishing first in the group is unlikely but could happen if Australia beats Greece and Canada loses to Spain by eight points or more.
There is a scenario where the Boomers still reach the quarter-finals with a loss, although that requires them to only lose to Greece by nine points or fewer while Canada would also need to beat Spain.
When it comes to beating Greece, that obviously starts with limiting the effectiveness of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, especially in transition where he is near impossible to stop. That means the Boomers need to limit the turnovers.
Nick Kay is likely to get the start guarding Antetokounmpo, although it will be a team effort because when you have a central figure like the Bucks superstar, his gravitational pull opens up looks for Greece’s outside shooters.
Greece hasn’t shot particularly well from 3-point range in either of its first two games, going 28.1 per cent from deep against Canada and making 34.3 per cent of its shots in the loss to Spain.
But Greece only lost both games by seven points so 3-point shooting could be a swing factor if the Boomers hedge their bets too much towards clogging the paint or stopping Antetokounmpo.
In saying that, while he didn’t have a prominent role in the loss to Canada this is the sort of match-up where you may see more of Magnay, with Goorjian leaning into his physicality and size.
Source Agencies
