“I don’t think we played our best game, but we pulled it out”, Anthony told reporters, deflecting any credit for the win.
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However Boomers assistant coach Luc Longley wasn’t having any of it, saying: ‘Tell ’em that’s global basketball’.
“I thought the second half we did a good job of just matching them”, George said.
“We thought we could compete with these guys and in the first half we showed that”, said Matthew Dellavedova, who helped the Cleveland Cavaliers win the National Basketball Association title in June.
The U.S. could never relax until scoring the final five points in the last 27 seconds on free throws.
“We lost. We’re not going to take small moral victories”. We have things to work on and we will do that, ‘ Bogut said. It’s an early round, we have work to do. The Aussies stayed hot on the US NBA stars’ heels but came no closer than four points after that. He saved the Americans from a shocking upset, as they downed Australia 98-88 to improve to 3-0 at the Olympics.
It was good for Australia, too, though the Boomers had to wonder if anyone can beat the US after just falling short in their best effort. Im not surprised the womens gold came down to the USA and Australia on Wednesday as it did in London, and it was exciting to see three other nations vying for medal contention with the second swimmers in the pool.
They showed their intent by racing into an early lead in the first quarter and putting their U.S. opponents under huge pressure.
Team USA ended up being down 25-17 late in the first quarter, which has been the first bit of adversity that this group has faced as a unit. The Australians, with big bodies inside, quality point guards to counter the American pressure and a wealth of National Basketball Association championship experience, stood toe to toe with the team that had blown them out of the last two Olympics in the quarterfinals.
George and the rest of Team USA’s roster should be very familiar with two players on the Aussie team’s roster who have a reputation for the rough stuff – Matthew Dellavedova and Andrew Bogut.
“We knew we were going to get their best”, George said, via FOX Sports Australia.
Despite going into the match as major underdogs the Boomers still fancied their chances of pulling off a shock victory and they looked on course to do it. They’ve won two gold medals and 19 Olympic games in a row after the culture of the program was changed by USA Basketball managing director Jerry Colangelo in the wake of the Olympic debacle of 2004 and the loss in the 2006 World Championships. By the end of the period though the U.S. had moved out to a narrow 70-67 lead.
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A new theory is also being speculated that Ray Allen’s comeback attempt is motivated by Curry envy, as Allen wants to return to extend his 3-point field goal record and assert his shooting supremacy over Curry.
