“We’re probabaly going to see them again and we’ve got to do a better job of matching them”.
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Australia’s dogged defence anxious the U.S., whose overall shooting efficiency dropped to just 39% for the game, well below their normal levels. Team Australia is coming off a 15 point win against Serbia, while the USA routed Venezuela by 44 points two days ago, on the strength of a great performance from the Indiana Pacers Paul George’s 20 points.
The best way to get a handle on how America is viewing Thursday’s game is from the United States media.
Australians are 0-19 against USA squads but the full-game test posed by the “Boomers” was in many ways their finest hour on the court, although not to Aussie star Andrew Bogut.
Things that come easy to this glamour U.S. side, even without the super powers of Stephen Curry and Le Bron James, suddenly became tough.
New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony showed his class in the fourth quarter to carry his side home, and finished with 31 points overall. But Melo’s efforts alone, weren’t enough to pull away from Australia.
“It’s pretty obvious why it’s good for us”, said coach Mike Krzyzewski, who screamed at an official after Bogut’s hard foul on Irving in the third quarter. While Patty Mills and Bogut, would be efficient on offense to lead Australia for most of the first quarter.
The second quarter would be a back and fourth game.
Never did they trail by more than six points in the first half – and that was only in the opening minute after back-to-back three-pointers to Anthony. However, the United States ended up trailing 54-49 at the end of the first half. Since then, he’s become the first American male in #Basketball to play in four #Olympics, having been part of the USA national team in 2004, 2008, 2012, and now, in 2016. He took it upon himself to lead us and he’s been doing this for many years.
It allowed the USA to regain momentum midway through the quarter and forge back away to a 78-74 lead with seven minutes to play.
The U.S. wouldn’t have been eliminated had it somehow lost, but there is a certain pride factor when it comes to U.S. Olympic basketball teams. “They’re a nice blend of young but experienced high-level global players”.
In fact, if it weren’t for an unbelievable shooting effort by Carmello Anthony, who sank 31 points with an incredible 9 of 15 from behind the 3-point line, the story might have been very, very different.
Anthony saved his team in a 98-88 victory over Australia and its “Boomers” lineup of National Basketball Association players Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Andrew Bogut by scoring 31 points, including nine three-pointers.
“That’s the first real global game we had…”
The Boomers, for the first time in history, sit two wins and no losses at an Olympic Games campaign – and it’s no fluke either.
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“He [Anthony] is a great player”. He would finish with 7 points, 2 rebounds, and 4 assists.
