In the Rio Olympics 2016 Basketball courts, Team USA has everyone’s attention as revered NBA stars in the team garner a lot of attention.
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The Australian Boomers stepped up against the megastars of the National Basketball Association before falling short in a tense 98-88 Olympic pool match on Thursday morning. Meanwhile, Irving contributed 19 points to the American tally.
But the Dream Team even accused the Boomers of being a dirty team.
It was the Spurs‘ Patty Mills again leading the Boomers’ attack, scoring on drives to the rim.
The first quarter ended level at 29-29 and the cheers from the small pockets of Australian supporters in Carioca Arena grew louder as Australia built on their brilliant start in the second quarter as the outstanding Mills finished the first half with 15 points, including four three-pointers, and made some huge defensive plays as Australia limited the Olympic champions to just 34 per cent shooting accuracy in the first half.
Mills top scored for the Boomers at half-time with 15 points closely followed by Bogut on 13 and Damien Martin on 10, with Matthew Dellavedova setting up numerous scores.
Carmelo Anthony and Kyrie Irving scored 26 of 28 fourth quarter points for their side, OregonLive.com reports.
But Mills will trade any individual statistics for the chance to chase a medal.
“We knew it was going to be tough”.
“The match is a big picture of why we are here”. He added, “We still lost the game, it doesn’t mean anything”, Mashable quotes.
“They’re a very talented, very athletic and long team and they’re No.1 in the world for a reason”.
“We’re probabaly going to see them again and we’ve got to do a better job of matching them”. They are scheduled to play against Serbia on Friday and France on Sunday to wrap things up in the group stage.
While USA prevailed late, George, who had a quiet night with just five points against the Australians, said he wasn’t surprised about the physicality of the Boomers.
“It got real”, Paul George said.
“It was an adjustment for us”. The game kind of got out of hand early with the physical play. We knew that coming in – this team has a knack for being a little dirty.
After the game Australian centre Andrew Bogut couldn’t hide his feelings and believed his team could have done better.
“Anthony, who set the United States all-time Olympic scoring mark in the first quarter, 31 points, including nine three-pointers”.
“For this group, that was the first real worldwide game”, said Krzyzewski, who will step down as US coach after the Rio Games.
The threat to the US basketball reign is real, and it’s Australian.
“We beat a heck of a team tonight”, Krzyzewski said. They played three really tough opponents, us being the third one.
“Thanks to Golden State Warriors” Draymond Green’s three-point play at the end of the third quarter which made U.S. move out to a narrow 70-67 lead. They play so well together as one.
They showed their intent by racing into an early lead in the first quarter and putting their U.S. opponents under huge pressure.
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Nestor Colmenares lead the Venezuelans, now 1-3, with 16 points, while China’s Yi Jianlian had 18 points and 10 rebounds in defeat.
