While USA dominated as expected, the surprise of the day came as Australia upset France 87-66 to win their first Olympic opener since 1996. “We had him New Zealand previous year with a really, really bad back and he managed to get himself up and play and play well and dominant”.
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Cuban also says he plans to wear an Australian rugby jersey in support of Bogut, presumably while holding his breath that Bogut doesn’t aggravate his knee injury.
“I didn’t want it taken away that easily”.
Australia played remarkable basketball in the second half. In fact, his first points were finishing an alley-oop pass from Matthew Dellavedova.
Given Cuban’s history, Bogut was rightfully anxious he might not be able to play for Australia.
“Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it”, said Cambage. He played his usual complete game, pulling four rebounds to go with five assists.
With Patty Mills of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs scoring 21, the win got the Australians off to a positive start in a competition the United States of America is once again heavily favoured to win. “He has put the time in; he’s put the work in by himself when people aren’t watching. What you saw out here is what you get”.
In today’s match France that’s been playing basketball for over 80 years will compete against Australia, which is filled with bunch of veterans.
“Before this tournament, we said our identity’s going to be we need to be ***** defensively”, Bogut said. “He changes the whole dynamic, we’re happy to have him back”.
“Rudy played well”, Ingles said. “But Bogut’s defensive ability is pretty special. It was more a shot at the International Olympic Committee to get out of the penthouse suites and get things rolling a little bit better”.
Bogut and Aron Baynes held Gobert to just five points. This offseason, his Dallas Mavericks traded for Australian center Andrew Bogut, who was coming off an injury.
Irving is Victorian by birth, as his American father Drederick was playing semi-professional basketball in Melbourne at the time before the family moved back to the U.S. a few years later. “We’ll be better next game. It’s a great moment in my career (to be an Olympian), and now (I’ve) just got to get ready to win games”.
Thompson, a former teammate of Bogut at the Warriors, said the Aussies were a team to watch. With the group that we have, we believe that we can beat them.
He’s not wearing a brace, but has the knee taped and wrapped under layers of padding – enough to allow him to run, but also keep the pain to a minimum.
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Addressing the controversy over his Twitter comments on the athlete’s village problems, Bogut apologised if he offended his Brazilian hosts.
