Australia/USA

[Stevan]

Wow, the Aussies played well until they cracked once again. Bogut got dunked on HARD by Duncan!!!
Hmm, Lebron with 3 air balls from down town Once America got running though and started throwing down alleys it got interesting. Before that they were scared to shoot and penetrated even when they were wide open on the perimeter...
Good game though

[Andrew]

I thought the officiating was pretty shocking, Jason Smith raising a forearm to knock Iverson to the floor (with no offensive foul being called) being just one of the really strange calls. Some really strange calls, though Andrew Gaze seemed to agree with all the ones against the USA.

Speaking of Gaze, his commentary quickly became irritating. I've got a feeling Heal could stand at midcourt and throw it up into the crowd and Gaze would call it a crafty move. The other guy (Is it Basil Zempalis?) is just as bad - he's kissing Gaze's butt so frequently it's not funny.

Having said, the Boomers played really well through the first three quarters but lost steam in the fourth. Conversely, the USA played just well enough to stay in reach and saved their best for last. Definitely a great game to watch.

[Arcane]

great 1st half by australia shit 2nd half though heal threw up too many 3's from well beyond 3 point line..there were bout 3 bad ref calls in it i noticed and neilsons foul trouble were oour downfalls

[Andrew]

I believe it's our best effort against the US since they started sending NBA players (can anyone confirm that?).

[Arcane]

in an olympics yes best effort but weve lost by 1 point to them in world champs

[J@3]

Andrew Bogut: He'll be great if someone teaches him how to defend. He just let people shoot over him, and Duncan made him look like a bitch. On offense sometimes he looked dangerous, other times he didn't seem to know what he was doing. Didn't like the way he was acting towards the end of the game, like a little kid throwing a strop.

Matty Neilsen: Probably played himself into an NBA roster in the first 3 quarters, he was shooting all over Lamar Odom (which scares me as a Laker fan). Was easily our best inside player, gave the USA alot of problems with his awesome post moves. Still somewhat undersized, which just seems to be the story of Australian Basketball.

Glen Saville: My favourite NBL player, did well for the first 5 minutes or so but faded pretty badly. I really wish he could maintain it over an entire game against big time competition like this because he's such a fantastic player to watch. Solid without being anything special.

Jason Smith: Another impressive one, I'm not really his biggest fan but he definitely showed alot of skill tonight. Great from outside and his defense was fantastic against guys who are alot quicker and more athletic then he is. Could/should be on the Dallas roster but injured himself before his tryout, so maybe he might've impressed enough to get on a summer league roster for next season.

Shane Heal: Argh. That's basically all I need to say about him. He was playing so well in the first half, I'd even go as far to say he was doing an Arroyo on the US. Hitting 3's, setting up teammates... basically everything we've come to expect from Shane playing for Australia. Until he got blocked. After that he seemed tentative and didn't want to shoot at all, which is annoying but awell... he should've done more in the 2nd half.

Reserves:

David Anderson: The most dosile looking player on the Australian roster, well besides maybe Ronaldson. Was the only forward who looked like he wanted to rebound but has a tendancy to try and grab the ball with one hand instead of two, thus alot of the time he'd either tip the ball out of bounds or get the rebound ripped off him. Otherwise he was decent.

CJ Bruton: I might be a biased Kings fan but I was really impressed with CJ. Often out-ran Iverson up the floor and just flew past Marbury whenever he wanted to. Didn't really do much from the outside but he was good enough with the ball in his hands. Like the rest of the team/nation/world, faded in the 2nd half.

Brett Maher: Wish he had a few more open looks, he would've hit them all. Did everything that was asked of him, which I guess is what he's always done. Was never going to win the game for us but continues to play well especially from 3.

Tony Ronaldson: Fuck off.

Paul Rogers: Should've played.

Martin Cattalini: Too slow.

John Rillie: He'd get minutes if his name was Shane Heal.

That's how I saw the game, player of the game for the USA would've been the referee's with Andrew Boguts interior defence a close second.

[Matt]

Don't worry Jae, Duncan looked like a bitch on defense against the Greek guy Padapopolous (?)

heres how I saw the game.....questionable calles everywhere
Lebron dunked hard on Smith on the Alley
Lebron had 3 airballs
Stephon Marbury should be replaced by Wade who pushes he ball better and plays better D
Jefferson should be replaced as starter by the more athletic Marion who actually scores and plays better D
Bozzer should sit and let Amare play cos Boozer makes stupid decisions
USA needs to take some shots, can't drive all the time


against Lithuania they'll have trouble cos Lithuania have 2 big guys and USA haven't really faced that. Gotta start hitting those shots

[Steve04]

Where is Carmelo? Carmelo needs to stop sulking like a girl and maybe Larry Brown will play him. He has the jump shot we need.

We played better than you Aussies and that's why we won. The officiating was horrible but we played better D down the stretch while you CHOKED and that's why we ran away with it. Now if we could only push the ball like that all the time.

[Rens]

Where is Carmelo? Carmelo needs to stop sulking like a girl and maybe Larry Brown will play him. He has the jump shot we need.

We played better than you Aussies and that's why we won. The officiating was horrible but we played better D down the stretch while you CHOKED and that's why we ran away with it. Now if we could only push the ball like that all the time.

He got benched because when Brown put him in, the first thing he did was shoot it. Not a good way to get along with your old-school coach.

[Stevan]

Agreed about the officiating. I love Andrew Gaze's enthusiasm and his general knowledge of what's going on in the world of basketball is good, especially compared to the other guy! He's also blatantly biased though... no that it bothers me too much. If it was Tony Ronaldson doing the commentary I'd be livid!

Matt I agree with you, Wade, Marion and Stoudamire probably need to start, they made quite a difference tonight. Jefferson is a shit cunt, he's shooting 15% for the tournament Marion took every opportunity, running the floor to finish fast breaks and making some short jumpers (where team USA did a lot of damage) as well as rebounding. Marbury makes some fantastic passes but he couldn't buy a jumper and was getting penetrated on by Shane Heal, which is pathetic. Wade created some opportunities which you would expect some of the other US guys to be able to do, but for some reason they can't. Stoudamire's cool but because his name isn't Tim Duncan the opposition gives him a little more breathing room. Speaking of him, did anybody else want to pound the commentator for calling him "Stoodamire"?

To be honest, I was expecting team USA to win this, but the Boomers suprised me (pleasantly I must say) in the first half. However I knew the trouble was brewing when they were hitting pretty much everything early. They had to go cold, and then during an important stretch in the third or fourth, can't remember which, they started putting up shit shots from way out, no patience. I figured the aussie guards would get killed and it would go from there, but they did fairly well. Heal, Maher and Smith all shot well early, and team USA were afraid to pull the trigger.

Bogut needs to get stronger obviously, but I'm sure he will being only 19 and all. He'd post up Tim Duncan and then he couldn't move him at all. Then Timmy Dunced right in his fuckin face.

[Arcane]

i wonder if iverson might try and rip off cj brutons hairstyle this coming season they had similar styles just 1's hair went downwards and the others went upwards

[FanOfAll]

Didn't see the game but glad to see 'Melo only play 2 minutes. Either learn to work hard, hustle, play defense, and play a team offense where you don't jack up a shot 10 seconds into getting into the game, or enjoy the awesome seat that no one can buy.

From other games, I know that Marbury shouldn't be on this squad at all and Jefferson needs to fly back and grab his jumper. He's hustling, playing D, but just not hitting the open shots. Good thing is that he's not jacking shots like 'Melo.

Team USA is a disgrace.

[Jay-Peso]

Looks like the USA is pulling it together lately.

[J@3]

Erm... they were down by 12 at one point, and looked like getting beaten. The only reason they won is because Australia's interior defence fell apart, and then the players just got tired... better teams with bigger players are gonna hammer the USA.

[j.23]

12-16 the fourth quarter, pretty impressive for the US.. didn't catch the game but i heard they played a mediocre game till the last 10 minutes.. whoever said jefferson should be benched, i agree; he can't shoot the ball at all.. i'd replace him with marion at least he's contributing

[Tubarney]

does anyone else find it annoying how lebron thought he was the best after he made an dunk - pointing to the sky and skipping? arrogant bastard, i didn't see you skipping after you airballed all your three pointers. you've beaten australia and greece, hardly anything to be excited about.

[air gordon]

agree with matt and stevan on wade and marion starting. i don't know if it's out of respect or a confidence thing... whatever... from what i've seen the rest of the starters seem to play better with wade and marion in there instead of marbs and rjeff.

wade gets better penetration then marbs and as mentioned plays better D. they should start marion for the first few minutes. it seems if he makes his first shot, he's confident the rest of the game

[Mick]

I was able to catch the game which was fantastic. Free to air basketball in Australia is REALLY hard to come by.

I thought Australia pretty much lost their game plan in the fourth. They were perhaps over-confident or something similar as they didn't seem to run their plays nearly as well as they had in the first three quarters. They seemed to either hurry into rushed shots or not do enough on offence and have to put up a long distance three. Shane Heal shot a couple from WAY out during the game.

I thought Anderson had a reasonable game. Not spectacular, but willingly doing the dirty work. The guards wern't looking for him all that much. I clearly remember a half-fast break situation when anderson stormed down through the key with his right arm outstretched looking for the pass but instead Heal or Bruton (not sure) put up a challenged three which clanged off.

Neilsen had a great game, but pity about the foul trouble. I thought that there were a number of questionable calls throughout the game, which were pretty even with both team, so I wouldn't credit either team with referee assistance.

Bougart played really well. He needs a little more confidence posting up (see that fake-spin-hook over Duncan?) and he needed to calm down and not rush things in the fourth when he jacked up that really, really forced jumper from close to if not on the three. But his rebounding was good as was his hussel. He probably could have put a bit more body into weak-side defending, but for the most part, great game.

Heal played fantastically in the first half, he really was the leader-by-example for Australia. He had a couple of nice drives with high layups off the backboard and threes. I was amazed in the first quarter when heal got the ball on the left hand side corner three point line and there were no defenders even near him. With all the hype recently about the US team not rotating on defence I though they would have been in his face, especially since he is known for his three point shooting. Although this may have been due to excellent ball movement from Australia. The second half was still good, but not nearly as great as the first.

Overall I though Australia played really well, with a letdown in the 4th which cost them the game. Full credit must go to the USA for keeping the game close up till the fourth and then blowing the last quarter wide open.

Cheers!!!

[j.23]

anyone else notice that melo gets trigger happy when brown subs him in

[Matt]

yeah i notice it too....Lebron has been OK shooting the mid range shot though

is it me or does Carlos Boozer make the stupidest defensive decisions, he even had Duncan screaming at him

Lith beat Greece, if USA don't play their best defence they gonna lose (if the shooting continues). They need to shoot, all they do is drive

[Matthew]

Screw wade, he should be off the bench. I think team usa's lineup should be:
Duncan
Boozer
Marion
Stephon
Iverson

Then have odom, stoudamire, lebron, wade and melo/jefferson off the bench. Speaking off jefferson, was it you Matt who said that RJ was team usa's best shooter? The difference in the game was usa actually started to cut off the ball, which stoped australia from clogging the lane whenever anyone was posting or driving. The americans defense also fucked up australia, and led to fast breaks.

does anyone else find it annoying how lebron thought he was the best after he made an dunk - pointing to the sky and skipping? arrogant bastard, i didn't see you skipping after you airballed all your three pointers. you've beaten australia and greece, hardly anything to be excited about.

Go have a bitch.

[j.23]

i agree with your lineup minus the boozer part.. i think odom's been playing real well especially on defense.. the guy has great anticipation and knows how to time his blocks properly.. he's also a really good rebounder..

as for jefferson, i appreciate his hustle but this kid can't shoot.. i'd put marion in the lineup just because he provides the stuff jefferson gives + the jumpshot

[J@3]

Matty Neilsen made Odom look like a complete bitch, he just couldnt defend him at all. Shame the referee's fouled him out of the game for breathing though

[j.23]

yeah the refs in olympic competition call ANYTHING.. having said that i've never seen anyone call a travel on a dunk attempt (lebron james).. pretty strict if you ask me, and the guy was pretty open too

on another note
didn't shane heal play for the spurs or am i thinking of something else?

[Arcane]

yeah heal did play a few games for spurs so did gaze