After a disappointing outing against Germany that consigned Australia to a second place finish at best in Group E, the Boomers were looking to exert some domination and flex their muscle as the third ranked team in the world over the lowest ranked team in their initial pool, 36th ranked Japan.
The Boomers are no stranger to Japan, having played them multiple times over the course of qualification, not really being troubled even with a ragtag cast of mostly NBL players filling in on duty while the NBA guys were otherwise tied up.
Japan of course are missing their talisman Rui Hachimura, the Lakers forward choosing to skip the World Cup to focus on his upcoming NBA season and his pending free agency (he released this statement before NBA free agency opened). Still, the Japanese team aren’t without talent, namely Yuta Watanabe, who spent last season in Brooklyn as a teammate of Patty Mills and who will be in Phoenix this upcoming season.
Maybe Japan’s best player at this World Cup though has been naturalised center Josh Hawkinson, his inside out game and sheer size providing a desperately needed point of difference for a Japanese team measuring in at one of the smaller in the entire competition.
On the actual game, the Boomers entered this one with a rare size advantage across the board with the exception of Hawkinson vs. the likes of Duop Reath and Xavier Cooks.
After calls to tinker, Brian Goorjian made one change to his starters, bringing in Josh Green at the expense of Matisse Thybulle to provide some much needed outside shooting threat.
Truth be told, this game was over as a contest by halftime, Australia racing to a 57-35 lead at the main change. The sluggish starts that had plagued the team in the prior two games were gone as Josh Green hit an early four point play while Josh Giddey used his comical size mismatch over Yuki Kawamura to have the game on strings.
The first half was some of the best basketball the Boomers have played in the tournament, using their length and athleticism on defence to create numerous transition opportunities, and the lineups with Xavier Cooks at the small ball center position proved invaluable in allowing Goorjian’s switching scheme to flourish.
Cooks was a real circuit breaker in this game, and while his 16 rebounds are somewhat inflated by the few cheapies he missed and regathered at the rim, his energy and relentlessness on the offensive glass was a real energiser and helped keep the team up and about during period of offensive ineptitude. 10 offensive rebounds in any game against any opponent is no mean feat, especially seeing as a lot of his minutes were against Hawkinson, who played 36 minutes out of the 40.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that trend continues going forward. Cooks I don’t think works in the starting lineup because he’d likely be playing the four, but his value as a small five against bench units will be a real reason why Australia can sustain pressure against bigger lineups, by outrunning them. Besides, Cooks isn’t a bad rebounder by any measure anyway.
Cooks finished with 23 minutes played, slightly more than Nick Kay (21) and considerably more than Duop Reath (14). Expect that trend to hold.
The second half exhibited some bad habits creeping in. Whether or not it was just the game situation and a safe lead or something more sinister remains to be seen, but the defensive intensity that keyed the first half lead was largely non-existent, and the rebounding struggles came to the fore again.
Japan actually won the second half by 2 points, largely through some hot shooting, to be sure, but also through some poor defensive reads by the Boomers, inconsistent ball pressure and miscommunication on cuts and screens. Also, despite Japan being a small team in totality, the size issue still reared with Hawkinson, who finished with a domineering 33 points and 7 rebounds on 13-16 shooting from the field, most of them at the rim.
In the end though, the Boomers earned the right to lay off the gas pedal with their first half, but while the lead dwindled to as little as 13 in the fourth quarter, the result was never truly in doubt. Like the Germany game, Josh Giddey stood up in the fourth quarter, taking matters into his own hands and using his 6’8” frame to bully Japan’s smaller guards and kill them with an array of floaters, hooks and even one dagger three.
Winning a game by 20 when Patty Mills only shoots 4-13 from the field is only a positive moving forward for the options this team will need to call upon in the later stages of the tournament, and while you won’t get 50 points combined from Giddey and Cooks every night, the manner of their offense being largely inside-based is a more repeatable and sustainable offense than we’ve seen so far, one that should help mitigate those well-publicised shooting woes (8-27 3PT)
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BOOMER HIGHLIGHT
I’m not a huge fan of taking victory laps when predicting good players to become good, but I’m going to make an exception for my opinions on Xavier Cooks over the last year or so.
I wrote this in October last year, it’s nice to be right.
Cooks’ development has been one of the more heartwarming and maybe left-field stories of Australian basketball the last few years. After toiling away at little-known Winthrop University for four years, he played a season in Germany before landing at the Sydney Kings, where his first two seasons would be beleaguered by injuries.
His rise though, resulting in two NBL titles, a league MVP and finals MVP, and an NBA deal in Washington, has been built off the back of a unique skillset that the Boomers don’t really have in high supply.
A running 4-5 man in the FIBA game, Cooks is a terrible shooter. Like no threat whatsoever outside of 10 feet. But that doesn’t make him unusable at that end, because of his high motor, touch and energy.
A keen screener who rolls with purpose, Cooks is most comfortable operating as a point centre off the short roll in the middle of the paint, just below the free throw line. He’s a capable interior passer, and possesses a range of floaters and deft touches that bely his size and brute force. And don’t forget his rebounding ability at both ends, as he can grab and go off the defensive glass as a one man fast break while also being a siphon on the offensive glass.
Cooks was a training body before the Tokyo Olympics, but two years later he might be one of the Boomers most pivotal players, especially with the injury to Jock Landale.
His 24 points, 16 rebounds and 2 blocks against Japan are a worthy reward.
DISLIKE
I touched on it above, but the second half drop in intensity was disappointing to see, especially the end to the third quarter and early part of the fourth.
I get playing Japan with a big lead can be tough to get up for, but that sort of lull can’t happen moving forward.
BOX SCORE
NEXT GAME
I believe the next game is on Friday night but time and opponent are yet to be finalised, but let’s assume it’ll be Slovenia, as current leaders of Group F.
KEY MATCHUP: Luka Doncic vs. whoever.
Slovenia are a really interesting team, and one the Boomers will be familiar with having bested them for a bronze medal in Tokyo two years ago. However, the Boomers had Jock Landale then, and now they don’t.
Slovenia play an unusual style, isolation heavy, as is the case when you have an incandescent star like Doncic, but it’s a largely outside-based style. Everything goes through Doncic pick and rolls, usually with Mike Tobey, but Slovenia are usually looking to kick out and shoot threes rather than feed the post.
Whether that tact changes with the Boomers height issues remains to be seen, but it’ll be interesting to see how Australia defend Luka. Expect Matisse Thybulle and Luka’s Dallas teammate Josh Green to get the majority of the matchup, but the key to defending someone like Luka is to show him different looks, so expect some Dante Exum and maybe even Xavier Cooks too.
#GoldVibesOnly
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If you missed it, I recorded a FIBA World Cup preview podcast for Beyond The Fence, focusing primarily on the Boomers and Group E, with Michael Houben from The Pick and Roll. It’s on all podcast platforms, go check it out.