“I think we showed in our last game that they are not unbeatable”.
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“We have set the goal of winning the gold medal”.
Pau Gasol finished his 2016 Olympic Games – and possibly the last global competition of his terrific career – by leading Spain to an 89-88 win over Australia in the bronze medal game on Sunday.
The United States collection of National Basketball Association stars, unbeaten for a decade, will face Serbia in Sunday’s Rio Olympics gold medal game after both teams won semi-finals Friday.
In the second semi-final, Milos Teodosic scored 22 points and Stefan Markovic added 14 to spark a Serbian rout.
“It’s unbelievable”, Bogut said.
Spain’s last four points all came from the free-throw line, with Boomers coach Andrej Lemanis saying they were all pretty soft calls.
Serbia lost to France by one point in its next contest and lost by three to the U.S.
Team Serbia took down an Australian squad with multiple National Basketball Association players.
“It’s unbelievable”, said Australian center Andrew Bogut. Serbia had a chance to force overtime, but guard Bogdan Bogdanovic missed a 3-pointer as time expired. Spanish guard Sergio Rodríguez knocked down two free throws to win in the game’s final seconds after earning a contentious foul call on a drive toward the Aussie basket. David Andersen scored 15 points, Ryan Broekhoff scored 13 and Brock Motum scored 12 on a combined 15-for-21 shooting.
Mills finished with 13 points (six from 16 field goals), Dellavedova managed just three points (one from six field goals), while fellow National Basketball Association player Bogut collected just four points and one rebound.
Australia was doomed by the atrocious start. Australia had been cutting teams apart with lovely movement all tournament, but Serbia’s masterful defense completely shut the Boomers down on Friday evening. The Aussies tried to come back, but whether it was layups, mid-range jumpers or 3s, they just kept missing and missing and missing. They shot 27% from the field, recorded 14 less rebounds, and just eight points in the paint.
It was a disappointing performance for a team that had played as well as anyone.
But there was nothing but deafening silence after a soul-destroying 87-61 loss to Serbia in their semifinal on Friday (NZT Saturday), leaving the Boomers to fight for bronze against Spain on Sunday (NZT Monday).
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The Boomers are the favorites in this one, coming off a dominant win over Lithuania, but Serbia is nothing to scoff at and if its shooters get going, this could be a great game.
