that is bloody quick, perthworld. Lol

If you talk to Matt Russell we are already through to the Gold Medal game. Does that mean we don't even have to turn up Friday night?

Early odds: AUS $2.67 $1.60 ESP

Australia now firming in the betting strongly Spain 1.72 Australia 2.00

Argentina at $3 against France. France at $1.40 Get on the Argies!

FIBA scheduled it early so not to clash with the West Coast v Geelong final. They will make sure Spain win to purposefully avoid any risk of the game going into overtime

Has Baynes been carrying an injury, or is it something that happened in the game?

He was benched and shirted about halfway through the last, and was clearly in pain just trying to get his shirt on. Then seemed to be nursing his right arm or shoulder.

Looked to me like he got hurt taking the charge. Started to get up and then fell down again.

Yeah I noticed that, but I thought maybe he was just winded?
I'll try going back and having another look

Had another look. Not sure what happened with that charge. He definitely went down again. Might have just been a knock to the guts or maybe even nuts.

Seemed to moving ok in the 4th, maybe slightly favouring his right arm, but not much at all.
Definite grimacing when putting on his shirt, but hopefully just a niggle he's carrying.

Going to him and all the starters firing for the Spaniards.

Spain get the extra days break which could be crucial at this stage of the tournament. We did at times look a bit gassed last night too I thought.

The rhythm of playing every second day might help. These things can go either way.

I agree, Baller#3
That extra day is really valuable right now

The extra day's rest is big, especially when you consider the Boomers go from playing the latest timeslot of the tournament and then have to back up 43 hours later. Spain have had a full 3 days rest.

The biggest hurdle against Spain is that they replicate a lot of what has been successful for us - battle hardened vets that have played together for years. Only they've done it in the biggest of games.

We can definitely get them, but I think we are underdogs. I don't think that's a bad thing though, as I think Australia plays better when they're chasing rather than being chased.

Also, we should be wearing green uniforms on Friday.

Boomers were a touch sloppy in that first half last night. Czech don't look as good as France or Lithuania. They were mixing up the defensive looks more than other opponents had, but it was disappointing how they made the Boomers look out of sync.

Hopefully the Boomers pattern of the whole tournament continues for the next game- one good game, one somewhat off game, then another good one...and so on.

Extra days rest makes Spain the slight favourites.

On the other hand, Spain have started slow in this tourney- were down double digits vs both Tunisia and Iran- Iran jumped them 10-0. Serbia and Puerto Rico led them at quarter time. I'm hoping the Boomers get the jump, and then ride on a wave of confidence and keep the lead.

Boomers were a touch sloppy in that first half last night.

That extra day break Spain get is massive. Friday nights gonna be great, Boomers followed by West Coast vs Geelong! :D

I think Baynes will probably be alright but clearly needed to be rested. Our bigs will be well rested moving forward, and none of our guards played much over 30.

What a game this will be, on paper I'd expect it to be the toughest game of the tournament.

Spain in a similar position to us, whereby these had the same core @ international level for a number of years now.

Rubio has been firing and they've been getting even contributions across the board and again, similar to us they play beautiful fundamental team bball sharing the ball.

We need one of those perfect games again similar to to our France performance.

Last nights game whilst gritty just wont get it done, too sloppy with the turnovers and need some scoring support behind Patty. Will need significant scoring contributions from Joe and Baynes.

Win this and we're in Pole position for that Gold you'd think!

Thanks Luuc for posting that video, yes we owe them one for the flop but with 5 seconds to go we did botch the next possession when we should have at least done the same and driven to the rack to try and draw a foul!

Let's get over that now and rewrite history, GO BOOMERS!

Yeah we needed career shooting night by Baynes and a few missed bunnies by France to get that game. Yes we made some big plays, but you can't rely on that all the time. I would say any of the 4 teams is more than capable of winning the gold if they play near their best. That is pretty exciting.

I know its all about sticking to the plan and going with what works...

But:
I think we have a better team, but they have some stars who are capable of destroying us all on their own.

Rubio might be the best PG left in the comp, and he carries that team. Can Delly shut him down? That could be the key to the game.
If Delly's off, or gets into foul trouble we need maybe CG to try and keep him contained.

Gasol has been having a great tourney. He has been dominant, and playing good minutes. His backup is ok, without being great.
I don't know if Baynes can contain him? Should we start Bogut??

The battle between Jingles & Fernandez is going to be epic.

Baynes will do a better job than Bogut because Gasol knows how to use his size and Baynes can match up with him physically.

Do we go with Delly / Creek for containing Rubio?

Two best teams in the tournament left for mine

Should be the gold game

Somne wouldve argued that tonights playoff for 5th shouldve been the gold game haha.

That's true

Boomers at risk because they rely too much on the 3 ball. Would love to see more emphasis on transition. Boomers also exposed on the curious way they've chosen to defend the on ball screens, giving away a midrange every time. On the other hand it was great to see Bogey sticking the points away late in the Czech game, more of that please. And I agree with a few others that Ingles is due a big game.

Like the video but hate it.

I think on the last Aus possession it was tipped away on a pass. So in my mind we can't blame lemon grass for that.

Also watching the video can't help thinking broekoff would be a nice distraction sitting in the corner!

Also I am loving that Paul isn't there to destroy us.

Not confident but optimistic for a win

(Also since I haven't watched the last two games live I will be abstaining in case I jinx them)

Most important basketball game of my life.

"Rubio does not carry the team, they have another guy in llull"

What, a basketball team with more than one guard? Whoever heard of such a thing.

Rubio is the most important player on their team. If we can shut him down (without letting their other players run amok) we could win this game.
Of course it is never that simple. But it will be interesting to watch the match-ups.

Spain has not been a huge 3-point team, so it will be interesting to see if our strategy of conceding the mid-range works

Yeah nah, Spain are anything but a one-man team, and they are team that's excellent with their counters, so shutting down one guy usually opens up another.

Where did I say they were a one man team? Or anything even remotely close to that?

As I pointed out, they have THREE guys who are exceptional, and I thought worthy of mention. In point of fact their entire starting 5 is impressive, as you would expect. Their starting Forward, (Clavier?) is no slouch and probably a better allround player than Landale.

But Rubio is a class above. He was on fire against the Pols.
As I said, its not that simple. He's had one off game, against IRAN,
so nobody has been able to shut him down.

Sorry if it offends people to point out that anybody but Australia has great players. As I said, the way GC has been playing, and even Kay & Creek. I think we have a better 8~9 man rotation than Spain, so a better team, but they do have some better players.

There are great match ups across the board,

Delly/Creek v Rubio
Ingles v Fernandez
Baynes v Claver/Willy H
Bogut v Gasol
Mills/Goulding v Llull/Ribus
Landale/Kay v Juancho H/Oriola

Hopefully Joey has some personal insight which gives Australia an effective strategy to blunt Ricky's influence.

But, as mentioned, Spain have multiple guys who can be game winners on the biggest international stage so shutting down Ricky is only one part of the puzzle.

I think the Spanish are jtst as worried about Mills and Co and like 2016 I anticipate a tight match. To close to call but I hope Australia prevails.

Jeez I can't wait for this one.

I feel like Fernandez has been playing for 30+ years, guys just keeps going.

I see a case for starting Creek on Rubio with the sole purpose of upsetting his rhythm. I can't see a case for not starting Delly though (or anyone else).

If you're prepared to throw caution to the wind for the sake of this game and do the above, then it would be easier to replace Creek in the starting 5 with Sobey with express instructions that Rubio is shut down. Even to the extent of fouling to stop him. Give him hell, just short of dirty or thuggish (I don't ever want to see that). Just to try so hard that he will cause fouls anyway. Just stop him early. He has the speed, he sees himself as a bit of a bulldog and, with all due respect for Sobey, he is more expendable than Creek as things stand.

Then Delly, and he's no slouch on D and can take over running the team resting Mills and Ingles from pressures they, no doubt, have been receiving without having to sub out of the game. He's also that little bit fresher than Rubio, hasn't been hassled for the 2 or 3 mins of Sobey's involvement and hopefully, Rubio has picked up a foul cos Sobey has pissed him off so much.

I am sure that post is utter rubbish. I often sit hear and let my feeble thoughts go wild while I practise keyboard skills. I delete 99% of them. I hit the wrong button this time. IGNORE THE ABOVE.

I can see team fouls being critical in this game as both teams target the stars in order to shut them down. There will be a lot of aggro from Australia who want revenge, and from Spain who want that GF spot and think they deserve it.

Think we'll need more Bogut and less Baynes for this matchup. Hopefully Bogues feels good physically and stays out of foul trouble. I think his length at the rim and on the boards will be key.

I really want to see not only a Boomers win, but Ingles to dominate.

Purely because I really, really want to see the headlines read: "Boomers advance to Gold medal game, Spain No Hablo Ingles".

Very good Shane Heal fan. I like it

And Robt, no need to apologise, I like your outside the box thinking. It is bold, risky and very reckless, like Deng Adel's exclusion from the Boomers World Cup team...................it might just work ;-)

'Tougher than an NBA schedule': The Australian Boomers’ World Cup campaign is taking its toll

https://www.foxsports.com.au/basketball/fiba-world-cup/tougher-than-an-nba-schedule-the-australian-boomers-world-cup-campaign-is-taking-its-toll/news-story/d46a6fd04257d09e285accc72ec7c664

While everyone around him was kicking it, Nostraballmus first picked up a ball in country NSW in 1983. Very soon after he became a Boomers fan. You don't choose your team, your team chooses you.

Today is a big day. Only eight previous days since 1983 has Nostraballmus woken with the same question on his mind as today - is it Medal Day ???

GO YOU BOOMERS

Joe Ingles is the Boomers' sh*t-talking extraordinaire. It all stems from having some perspective

https://www.foxsports.com.au/basketball/fiba-world-cup/joe-ingles-is-the-boomers-shttalking-extraordinaire-it-all-stems-from-having-some-perspective/news-story/6292dd13d80b94d1040207e938ce126e

Just take a free Kayo trial to watch the game. If you have some that previously, create another email address and use it to take out another free kayo trial.

Best way is to sign up via (IIRC) "Bet Easy"
I went through that, didn't even have to verify the Betting account, and straight away linked through to 3 months free Kayo.

Ah good call. I've done multiple Foxtel trials but never on Kayo.
I did the Bet Easy 3 month trial too. Talk about perfect timing :)

This is overly simplistic but I am a little concerned in regards to our defensive strategy versus Spain's scoring.
We apparently try to limit 3-point shooting, and close-in shooting, whilst conceding the (statistically poor) mid-range.
However it appears that Spain are quite strong in that area

In case someone needs the free Kayo offer ASAP here's the link with instructions:

https://www.hoops.com.au/forum/45558-2019-fiba-world-cup-how-to-watch-for-free-legall/

These O-boards are frustrating

That airball was nice, though.

Was worried how we'd go when Patty rested. We ended that quarter very well other than the late turnover.
Fkn knew that would cost us :/

We just have to live with these turnovers and do it the hard way yet again. It's unfortunately the Boomers style.

ROFL at that.

Nup. Creek giving us some decent minutes so far. Any minutes rest we can buy for the starters this half are valuable I reckon.

Man this is one tough game. Hanging tough boys, keep at it.

Lots of barely-stationary screens from Spain, and mispronunciations from the lead commentator who's a prat. (Rubio dribbles behind the back and the commentator says he’s a magician. ROFL)

Expect lots of flopping and head checks and over-acting from Spain if that's what it takes to win

Laughable offensive foul on Delly there.

Massive flop by Fernandez.

HT ESP 32-37 AUS

Not bad.

HT ESP 32-37 AUS

Not bad.

Not bad at all

A positive is we look the better team than Spain.

A negative is we not shooting well other than Patty.

Need some Ingles threes!

No disrespect to our excellent defence, but I doubt Spain will shoot that poorly in the 2nd half.
Mills + Ingles = 1/6 form outside so hopefully plenty of lift to come for us as well.

Acting by Spain doesn't deserve to be rewarded.

Offensive on delly? Load of shit

Laughable offensive foul on Delly there.

Both teams look like they have both played a game every second day for the past fortnight.

Boomers looking ok given the lesser recovery time, do they have enough juice to hold Spain or even pull away in the 3rd.

The intensity in this game is off the charts. Such a potentially huge occasion. I wish they knew how much support they had back here. Time for revenge.

The intensity in this game is off the charts. Such a potentially huge occasion. I wish they knew how much support they had back here. Time for revenge.

The call previous on Delly was a travel kr not the one we are talking about.

"I thought I saw the ref signal a travel. Do we know it was called a foul?"

I'm going to assume that the play-by-play having it down as an offensive foul means that it was foul...

Now we force a turnover but can't convert from it. Argh.

There's the difference between height and what you can get away with between NBL and NBA/Europe with that Kay mid-hook shot.

Nice run :)

Let's maintain this cushion please.

Ten are even better!

This game has been so tense so far but I'll take an 8 point lead nearing 3/4 time against Spain any day of the week.

Our defense has looked solid so far but how much gas do we have left in the tank and can we get our shot to drop soon?

Spain don't look good but these second and third chances are killing us.

NICK KAY!!!

Nick Kay. Training Camp form!

Tech on Rubio for whining!

Baynes Block!

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Our nice points cushion all but gone.

3QT ESP 51-55 AUS

Foul trouble update
Bogut & Landale 3
Delly 2
No one else with more than 1

Think that was Bogut with the bucket. Hard to tell with that ridiculous camera angle.

Looks like we'll have to beat the refs too.

Great patch by the Boomers

Awesome D by Bogut.

NICK KAY AGAIN!!!

Would have been nice for Ingles to splash that three, but drawing a foul and getting 2 from the alley is probably handier in the long run.

Looks like Spain are gonna try to act their way back into this one.

agree with Rat10 - the refs starting to look a bit partial to Spanish over-acting

Woah Kay making it look like a training clinic out there

Nick Kay just gets to the right spot every time

I love how Rubio earlier grabbed his head when he got whacked on his arm.

Ughh... again great momentum and we throw it away

Nick Kay with the almost-three. Imagine if that went in.

3:00 left ESP 65-67 AUS

We're having a ref mass-debate right now. Good call.

Make em count, Patty

Awesome fouling Spain.

Kay you could of been a hero. :(

OFFS
This offence of ours right now is kiling me!!

Heart attack stuff. We keep giving Spain so many opportunities.

Boomers 70
Spain 69
28 seconds left
Spain ball.
Both teams in the bonus.

This is it.

Spain to the line.

We are up by one.
:(

8.7s left.

ESP 71
AUS 70
8.7 seconds left
Boomers ball.

ESP 71-70 with 8.7s left. Time out. Our ball advanced to the half way line.

FFS too many turnovers by us.

Plus these refs too.

OMG MILLS DRAWS A FOUL

Mills draws the foul

It's a reverse Rio

Still 4.7 seconds left

71-71 one free throw to shoot

OT!

Mills misses the last free throw.

Rubio nearly hits a buzzer beater but it rims out.

OT :(

OMG it's never easy with the Boomers, is it?

Boomers GOAT Gaze wouldn't have missed the free throw.

C'mon Joe.
You're better than this

So close, yet so far...

My heart breaks that little bit more with every farking turnover. Our blokes look gassed.

HUGE Mills three after Gasol hit one.

Nick Kay! #NBL

76-76 if anyone needs the score. 3mins left.

Nick Kay 18pts!

Joe. You have to shoot it!

78-78 Ingles makes both free throws. 2:22 left.

Another turnover.k wjflfejwewfjewklfjwkljfkjwlwkfjejf

Patty, accept the foul and STFU. You don't want them going to the video for that contact to the "throat"

We basically now have the last shot of the game. Still 78-78 15s to go we have 14s shot clock.

Spain foot violation to reset our clock to 14s with 16.3s left. Not bad considering the breakdown on that possession.

I have a dream that despite our 3049309403903 turnovers that we medal.

Spain can't believe they're getting called for grabbing the opposition. I kind of can't either.

AUS 80
ESP 78
14.2 seconds left

1 stop needed.

ESP possession.

Mills playing the flop game but it has been absolutely necessary to keep us in it.

This is so much better than NBA.

Gasol to the line for two.

4.2s left. Still 78-78.

I mean 78-80 we're up by two

AUS 80
ESP 80
4.6 left
Booomers ball

Gasol 2/2, 80-80, 4s left

Delly missed the runner

DOUBLE OT

Delly not a bad shot but no good. Double overtime.

I picked a bad week to give up alcohol!!

Luuuc I won't update since you are - I'm watching on Kayo stream not Fox at home which is obviously faster.

If I stop updating it's probably because I've had a heart attack.

The guy with the Foxtel Go issue got me thinking - what a travesty that this isn't on free to air TV for the masses to see.

Ouch. Spain off to a good start here. Blanketing Patty.

Goulding subs in. Not a bad call with Joe refusing to shoot

:(

ESP 90
AUS 82
2:06 left and it's going to take a serious rescue mission from here

Well this loss will hurt for a long time

Baynes for 3 to keep us alive.
Silly foul by Creek though

Turnover
:(

That'll probably do it

Another turnover.
Awesome.

FFS
This is embarrassing now

Turnovers are disgusting. Choking in the clutch

We look like some random pickup team now.

Final score
ESP 95
AUS 88

FT ESP 95-88 AUS

:(

Spain the first team to shut down patty late knowing no one else would step up

2OT is really not what a fatigued team needed going into the bronze medal game

If only Mills hit that second free throw in regulation...

There is almost no point in playing for Bronze now. It doesn't mean anything after this.

Ingles hesitation to shoot the ball is incredible. Woeful.

He is actually one of the least 'clutch' players ever.

Has the same problem in the nba, but here nobody 'tells him what to do' with the boomers. So he gets away with cruising along in 3rd gear.

We really should have won it in regulation. The offense went super-passive down the stretch.

There is that extra days rest for spain. So handy in the end for them to have extra rest but we should of obviously iced it before OT.

Ah well, we had our chances. Tough loss to a great team, but can't help but feel we shot ourselves in the foot more so than we straight up lost.

What really hurts is I think for the first time against Spain we were the better team. Just couldn't shoot and turned it over way too much.

We looked like dinosaurs out there towards the end.

Given that you cant feel bad. We were terrible for the last 15 minutes.

7th game - 26 hour shorter turnaround and double overtime. Fair thing would be for all QF games played on the same night so all 4 teams have the same break before the next game. Australia were always at a big physical disadvantage and amplified by double overtime

Proud of the guys for getting this far. A bit too desperate in the two OTs, which led to too many turnovers and poor shots. Such a shit that Andre had no more timeouts left at the end of 1st OT. @#$%^&*!@#$%^&*!

Baynes for 3 to keep us alive.
Silly foul by Creek though

kay a lock for tokyo ? no thanks

Yeah sloppy, passive game from Ingles, no doubt. Fatigue I think.

Nostraballmus is gutted considering we were up 11 deep in the third.

Scariolo adjusted, and we looked a bit like we had no plan B.

Proud of the effort but I'm done with proud.

We choked, pure and simple. You could see the writing on the wall in the 4th quarter when Delly kept missing open 3s and Joe was top scared to shoot the ball. Meanwhile ESP were knocking down most of their 3s and walking the ball to the basket for easy 2s.

The Aussies need to take their focus off winning gold medals and simply trying to maintain their mental focus for a whole game of basketball. You can just see in the tight moments the weight of the world falling on their shoulders, the pressure is simply too immense and they go into their shells, unable to win and desperately trying not to lose.

Kay did much more good than bad, but missed a couple of key bunnies too. But so did Landale to be fair. I don't think landale should start in the 3rd place game to be honest, see how he does with the 2nd unit.

Considering this team effectively lost a rotation when Bolden spat the dummy and replaced with a guy that was never going to see minutrs. We were always going to fatigue. Hope Bolden is out of the Olympic squad

Credit to Lemanis getting the team this far and obviously well liked by the group

That was the most stressed I've ever felt watching a game.

we need Bolden and Adel instead kay, if we want to medal

I see Dave has a new name.

Well done to Kay. Played world class and great selection for the team even against the advice from experts on this forum.

Well done to Kay. Played world class and great selection for the team even against the advice from experts on this forum.

Honestly? After that, and the schedule leading up to it, I would be unsurprised to see us get beat handily on Sunday.

Blah Blah... "Lemanis should have picked..." "Lemanis should have not rotated...." ....What a bunch of sad sacks. He got us to a semi final

Even if Kay goes as 12th man, he MUST be included in the Olympic squad for his performances in the WC and for what he will bring in a year's time!

If I feel exhausted and gutted how must the players feel!

I'm still proud of the team and I'll be supporting them come Sunday.

Sorry but Joe hasn't been great this tourney and it was pretty evident tonight. Unfortunately he doesn't show up at these big tournaments for Oz. The guy almost had the best 3 point % in the NBA a few years back and this should have been his event in the department......

What is this key hate? He might have a smaller role but he will be in the team for Tokyo without a doubt. Hes basically a tall Delly and I think that is valuable for sure.

Kay was easily in our top 2-3 players over the course of the tournament.

I was definitely wrong about Kay, he was unbelievable tonight, glad we didn't pick Adel.

Neither. I'm an experienced coach & ex-player who recognises the value of players regardless of which league they come from or how big their contract or ego or Twitter following is.

"we would have won the gold with adel, green and bolden, it is all Lemannis' faults"

Wow tell me the tattslotto numbers champ! Outside your fantasy squad: The entire squad put in 100% and we didnt get it done in 2nd OT.

Well done to the entire team!

and great job by Lemanis and the coaching staff to get us here and have us in the game almost to the end against the Spanish powerhouse

Extremely deflating, we did so much right in this game and other than turnovers and Goulding throwing up rubbish when we needed him (not hating on him but his shot didn't look like it would drop in the second half).

Immensely proud of Nick Kay and how he performed for us. I wouldn't say he's a lock for Tokyo but he will be hard to displace.

I know others don't care about Bronze but I still want it. This game will cause so much mental scarring and hopefully a bronze will alleviate some of that going forward.

Will this loss hurt how this sport is seen in Australia ?
I feel like we needed that gold medal game to really hammer home the momentum that this sport has seen of late.

Go Boomers

Hats off to Nick Kay, certainly proved me wrong.

Boomers took Spain again all the way as underdogs, with a day less rest, appearing tired, and nearly stole the win. Obviously could've gone either way. I'd like to be able to say refereeing wasn't a factor, but it's as much to do with the Spanish acting.

Both teams appeared tired. The extra day rest was surely beneficial to Spain being on the FIBA-assisted half of the draw.

With late game exhaustion kicking in, Spain effectively ran some basic pick-n-rolls, the good old NBA-style option when you are required to play so many games/minutes. This is the case where running a system like Lemanis is a tough ask, especially in 2OT after a tough schedule. Ingles has the capacity to run this action too to generate some easy baskets without too much action from others, but he was strangely passive. Without Ingles's scoring threat, teams can adjust and nullify him too easily.

Still have a chance to steal a bronze medal. It's already Australia's best tournament ever IMO.

Will this loss hurt how this sport is seen in Australia ?

Nuffy anon trashing Kay. Probably the same one, no balls to put a name down

If you had to point a finger it would be it wouldn't be at him. Played 10x the expectation people had of him, especially when landale just isn't strong enough yet, but still gets scapegoated. He wasn't the ball handlers dishing out turnovers like candy, or missing crucial 3s during the game.

OK! So we are all heartbroken. Reckon that that game will be seen as the best game, overall. A mighty effort by both teams. Congrats and Damnation to the Spaniards.

Let's all cheer the Boomers through their next and last game of this WC against .. whomever? They have been oustanding, IMO, learnt and progressed at nearly every step.

If any of them are silly enough to read our comments, let's let them know that we are there for them to the last.

Go Boomers, here comes our first medal! Bronze may even become my favorite colour!

If you said prior to the warm up games v Canada that Australia would be playing for Bronze you would take that in a heartbeat.
Still so much to play for still a medal up for grabs.
Well done fellas.

So proud and heartbroken all in the one night. Shattering loss but massive effort. The toll on the teams stars gradually wore them down. Let's grab that bronze as a stepping stone for Tokyo.

Exactly! They are 6-1 and that only loss was to Spain in 2OT!

They've been amazing, the best Boomers team ever by a margin. I think it will be very hard to back up on Sunday and win bronze, but bloody hell hope they can do it.

Fucking gutted :(

That was hard to watch. Too many repressed memories came flooding back. But i still feel proud at where we find ourselves, given what we had to do to get here.

What is with these moron troll anons bagging out kay? He was massive tonight. If he had done nothing else all tourny he justified his inclusion in the team just from tonights performance. Clearly must be just taking the piss. Or just dont watch the game.

Lets get that bronze.

Im going back to more heavy drinking.

Post game comment from Luc Longley:

"Spain gets kissed on the dick by the basketball gods every time we play them."

Yeah thats true. But several of those were 1v1 against gasol.

How often does anyone really expect him to win that?

His mistakes and misses were heavily outweighed by his good screens, box out o rebounds and defensive plays. However you look at it. He was one of our best tonight.

Joey... mate! Whats doing with Joey Ingles? Seemed... adverse to shooting the ball. Not what I expected.

Meh, if you dont know the reason why my name is flop warning. Im not going to explain it to you.

My name has little to do with what i said. So thanks for pointing out that you are one of those "moron troll anons" that knows nothing about bball.

Major FIBA tournaments have long been 8 games.

The only question i asked, technically. Is how often does anyone expect kay to beat gasol in a 1v1. And you didnt answer that...

I put a name to the things i say, you dont. I think its pretty obvious what you need to do.

Btw. That wasnt a question.

Have a good night mate. This is a pointless conversation. And it doesn't interest me.

Wanna talk about it further, choose a name. Im not getting involved with discussions with an anon. Hate my name choice if you want, but there is a specific reason it is what it is.

That was the most stressed I've ever felt watching a game.

Meanwhile, in South London, argh screw the cricket. I'm going to bed.

I don't think anyone can fault Kay tonight. How many offensive boards did he get? How many times was he inexplicably in the right place at the right time to put the ball in the hole? It was a superlative effort from Kay and he was one of our best on the day.

All of our players came up big for three and half quarters, but the experience and sheer talent of Spain was always lying in waiting, ready to boil over as soon as the opportunity arose. We failed to put our foot on their throat at key moments of the game and it cost us the game. Now, referee calls aside, and there were some head-scratchers, we had our chances multiple times and came up lacking.

As for Lemanis, I can't put that on Lemanis. This is largely the players. They looked scared out there when things got hot. They looked like they were truly haunted by Rio ghosts passed. Lemanis didn't miss sitters and didn't miss freethrows.

Regardless, if someone told me we were fight for bronze before this tournament with the way the Canada game looked, I would have been ecstatic. The bronze medal game is almost as important as the gold in the context of Australian basketball. Being the first team to medal isn't just a consolation, it's an achievement and verification of our place in the basketball world, and THAT goal still stands ready for the taking. I'm not going to bemoan what could have been when this team still has a piece of history to be made.

Spot on, ME.

Though it will take an incredible effort to bounce back from the devastation - both mental and physical - of tonight's defeat and win a bronze. I've got so much admiration and respect for this group, but I fear we will be blown out on Sunday by whoever we play (which is looking like being France).

We rebounded well from the humiliating Serbia loss in Rio to 'almost' win bronze last time. I expect that they should be able to come in with the right attitude to the next game.

The Serbia game was over about two minutes in. Not the same situation at all.

I guess we will see. What will be will be in the end. Fourth wont be a result to sneeze at, but it wont be the result anyone necessarily wanted.

Everyone needs to calm down. The boomers were big underdogs in this match and they were for a reason, and it was the reason we lost.

If I feel exhausted and gutted how must the players feel!

I think Australia were underdogs but the manner that the loss came is backbreaking. Fronting up against France on Sunday will be tough for these guys. I really hope they find it in themselves to really fight for this, and I hope - for ONCE in Australian basketball fucking history - they're rewarded with something shiny.

This Boomers team IS the best ever. Not the best talent nor deepest (Rio was better), but they have produced the best results. Even if they get blown out in the bronze medal game.

Even if they lost again, that's 6-2, the best record ever for a Boomers team in a major tournament. Have the Boomers even beaten European teams twice in a WC? In this WC, we are 3-1 with the only loss in 2OT versus Spain. So many people hold unreasonably high expectations of the Boomers. Even 4th is a massive achievement. If we grab that bronze, it deserves a parade, or at least widespread media praise, not that the Australian media ever gives the national basketball team any respect. It's understandable to be disappointed, but if you are visiting this forum you are likely to be enough of a diehard basketball fan that you should be able to appreciate the quality of basketball coming from this team.

How is it that posters are criticising Kay after this game, of all games? There must be some serious selective memory and confirmation bias going on.

Kay has been playing better and better as the campaign has gone on.

Kay was the only player to play UP to the occasion.

Ingles went missing as a scoring threat. Baynes was kept quiet, getting no looks inside the 3pt line. Delly wasn't looking threatening except for some open looks from 3. Goulding was cold/off/rushed/pressured/psyched out. Mills was under immense pressure and needed 25 shots to get to his 34 points, which is still respectable, but he was our only reliable scorer. It was our garbage guys that kept us in the game by cleaning up on the boards -- Bogut with tip-ins and Kay with 7 o-boards. People complaining about Kay missing shots: he was 7/11 for 2s! That was from smart positioning, clever cuts, good rebounding position, knowing where to go. Lemanis was absolutely right to push him above Landale in the rotation. He had 16 and 11 against Spain FFS!

Raw athleticism can be valuable. It gets onto the highlight reel. But basketball still values smarts. Basketball IQ is extremely valuable. Frankly, there shouldn't be an argument any more about Kay -- he manages to put in good performances from his basketball smarts, even at this level.

Looking towards Tokyo, Kay has asserted himself as more of lock than any other Aussie 4-man, assuming we don't classify Simmons as a 4.

A really tough loss, but in the end Spain deserved to win. They executed great offence after great offence, where we went stagnant.

Unfortunately, Lemanis chose to play 5 guys (plus one centre rotation) through the last quarter and both overtimes. During that period Kay was good on O boards, Bogut could score on tip ins only and Delay and Ingles were ZERO threat to score. Once Spain shut down Patty we had zero other scoring options.
I can understand why he stuck with the guys he did, but Lemanis needed to get some other scoring options in to the game sooner. It was clear Ingles was having a shocker, he needed to be taken out of the game.

Very tough and disappointing and unfortunately I can't see us beating France. The medal wait might have to be a bit longer.

Isaac, question below:

Long thread here too. 19th on the "most replies" sorted topics list. (Some of the longest threads are whole season state league/ old SEABL threads).

I noticed also that there were other WC 2019 threads with a lot of replies.

There has been debate about publicity/ broadcast/ public interest/ crowds/ YouTube hits/ twitter followers etc

Question to Isaac: what are the numbers like for subscription to the hoops site? I think most agree that posters here are more dedicated fans, not the casuals on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. Are there now more diehards who've joined the hoops community? We’re more likely to stick around than the casual fans, so an increase here would be a good sign for longer term improvement in fan base.

Shattered.

Proud of this team, but just so disappointed right now.

I'm not shattered before the tournament we would've taken making it to the bronze medal game that was always considered our best possible result. IMO, we were the worst team in the SF (we needed Baynes to go off 5/6 3pt to sneak past France) and the two best teams all tournament are now in the gold medal game. We didn't deserve silver.

It's going to be hard but we need to regroup and go hard one last time to try and create history by winning our first medal. I think France are likely to win this time as all of our offensive options outside of Mills have fallen away now that we've been heavily scouted but we really need to throw caution to the wind tomorrow night.

This team is probably our best chance yet to win a medal.

Apparently there have only been 19 double-doubles posted by Boomers players in WC/Olympic history. Kay's was the first to do it off the bench.

Kay has seriously impressed me.

The guy goes from strength to strength.

He's a team first guy who plays smart. No wonder he was om a 27 game winning streak.

He isn't we lost three warm up games before the tournament and then lost last night too, that was just something that Rugby nuffy came up with and thought sounded good.

Aside from that Kay too has impressed me in this tournament doing all the little things well and I'm willing to admit I was wrong about Motum needing to be picked ahead of him. We have missed Motum's outside shooting though but likely wouldn't be as good with him in instead of Kay.

Warm up games shouldn't be counted.

Kay was certainly a huge part of Perth's success last season, and has impressed in his role with the Boomers.

He stepped up to international mode almost seamlessly. And if he can be as consistent with his 3 point shot with the Boomers as he has become in the NBL then his value goes up another level again.
3P% across his first 3 NBL seasons was ~ 31%. Last season was 43.6%. I want to see him letting it fly with confidence this season.

Kay has been great. I don't think anyone can fault Kay over Motum after this series. It was absolutely the right decision.

"Apparently there have only been 19 double-doubles posted by Boomers players in WC/Olympic history. Kay's was the first to do it off the bench."

Kay's was also the first ever double-double by a Boomer in a knockout or medal round game. Pretty impressive.

Kay was oh so close to a Triple Crown:

[X] NBL
[X] NZNBL
[ ] FIBA World Cup

Would've been an amazing 2019 for him. Well, it still is.

https://youtu.be/iAcmyVbzq3A

"Spain Beats Australia in FIBA World Championships Semi Final 2019"
BBALLBREAKDOWN

Question to Isaac: what are the numbers like for subscription to the hoops site? I think most agree that posters here are more dedicated fans, not the casuals on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. Are there now more diehards who've joined the hoops community? We're more likely to stick around than the casual fans, so an increase here would be a good sign for longer term improvement in fan base.

Would the uptick in mid 2015 coincide with Kestleman taking over the league?

Doesn't appear to. Boomers games - tour and Oceania qualifying? Top threads by reply count for threads started during July-August 2015 are:

Boomers vs Tall Blacks, 15 Aug 2015
Hugh Greenwood quits Wildcats to pursue AFL career
Hawks to announce Kirk Penney signing Monday?
U17 Men playing now
U18 VC Boys
U16 National Champs Tasmania
European Tour: Boomers vs Lithuania
Live stream for Emu's v Turkey?
Delly and Cavs far apart on new deal
Big V Finals
Vic Metro National Results
Games 2 Boomers v Tall Blacks
Perth Wildcats secure Jawai
36ers communications are woeful
U17 Worlds Qualifiers
R22 PL: The Last Hurrah
Cambage chooses Music over Opals
Mornington possible No Big V teams
Opals-Japan Series
NBL television deal, sponsors close
36ers sign import combo guard Kenyon McNeail
Greenwood replacement options