QUICK WRAP: Australia vs. Spain
A small amount of vengeance for years of pain
Well, if you were one of those NAYSAYERS who were all doom and gloom as the Boomers headed into these Olympic games, don’t you look silly right now*, as the men in green and gold cruised to a 92-80 win over the source of many nightmares for Australian basketball fans, Spain.
*Do not look at my Twitter feed or listen to the most recent Beyond the Fence podcast please
It was a super fast start for the Australians, racing out to a 21-9 lead off the back of some gorgeous movement offense with Josh Giddey predictably acting as the fulcrum for all of Australia’s ball movement, and his initial chemistry with Jock Landale allowed the rest of the team to play off that action.
The shots were falling early for the Boomers, with Giddey hitting a pair of three pointers in the first quarter while Landale did a lot of his work inside, and the Boomers were able to take a ten point lead into the first break.
The first quarter ultimately culminated in an inevitable flashpoint with just over two minutes to go, when Josh Green was felled by a moving screen by big man Usman Garuba. The two exchanged words before Will Magnay’s “violent act” (aka lightly brushing the small of Garuba’s back with a pinky finger) meant both Magnay and Garuba were slapped with technical fouls. Honestly, it’s the Olympics, and to hit two guys with technicals for something akin to a kindergarten sandpit scrap is just hilarious, especially considering technical fouls go against your limit of five in FIBA play. Anyway, whatever.
Spain though, kept firing from the outside. While the Boomers played a very deliberate and considered style of basketball, operating very much in motion out of the elbow with Josh Giddey and Jock Landale, with the rest of the team in constant movement with cuts and dives, Spain constantly used the pick and roll to their advantage, and began to work an avenue back into the game by using Australia’s blitzing defence against them.
Sergio Llull, he of many tormentions (not sure if this is a word but we’re rolling with it) of Australia in years past, and Santi Aldama, the Memphis Grizzlies forward, were the main drivers of the Spanish resistance. Llull and Aldama would constantly fire from the hip from outside with little care for what the Australian defence were doing, finishing with a combined 11 three pointers made from 23 attempts (Llull was 5-15, Aldama 6-8).
It was the difference in the three point shooting (and indeed mainly the sheer volume) that kept Spain in this one and ultimately saw them taking their only brief lead of the game at 56-54 with 5:58 left in the third quarter. Australia, as mentioned above, play rather deliberately on offense, but that means they attack inside more and don’t get up as many threes, whereas Spain’s intent was noticeable right from the start.
The Spaniards would end up with 37 attempts from behind the arc, compared to just 24 from the Aussies, with both sides making 12 apiece, although three of Australia’s makes were in the final four minutes.
It’s this lack of volume that will need to be addressed going forward, as the team probably won’t shoot 50% every game and getting five threes combined from Dyson Daniels and Josh Giddey, neither of whom are known for their proficiency from deep, isn’t exactly overly sustainable by raw percentages.
There were some things to work on too for the Boomers, most notably on the defensive glass. Spain came up with 12 offensive rebounds (funnily enough the Boomers had 14), and of all the teams the Boomers will face in the group, I’d hardly put Spain’s rebounding above Greece or Canada. The Boomers made the conscious choice to leave two of the better rebounders in the country off this team in Xavier Cooks and Jack White, so they’ll have to rebound as a unit to compensate for the deficiencies in the big men’s rebounding (I know Landale had 9 boards and Nick Kay 5, but it was a battle). To that end, both Josh Giddey and Dyson Daniels are elite rebounding guards, so that helps.
The Boomers had to really fight and scratch for every single defensive rebound, and that could come back to bite them against bigger, more athletic teams. The Boomers have the potential to be an elite defensive team, even without Matisse Thybulle, but rebounding is half the equation on defence, so it’s of little value to constantly force the opposition into tough shots only to fail to close the possession.
To that end, the calls for Duop Reath to get minutes didn’t really make sense to me, only because he wouldn’t have solved any of the problems that presented themselves during the game. Granted, Magnay had nice moments sure, but was largely overmatched on his Olympic debut, and yet I could kind of see the vision.
Duop’s skillset is closer to Landale’s than it is Magnay’s, as a stretch big man who can crash the offensive glass, but he offers little to no value on the defensive end as a rim protector or rebounder. Would I have liked to see Reath play? Yes, especially during the stretches in the second half where Australia’s offense lagged, as I didn’t love the lineups with no Giddey and with Magnay instead of a more offensive minded big man.
Overall though, a solid first up hitout for the Boomers. I did flag before the tournament that Spain was probably the best matchup on paper from an athleticism standpoint, so it was good to see them get out and run. The performance of the team in the warm up games also helped ease some concerns about no Thybulle or Cooks, with some strong wins over Serbia and France, and a close game against the USA.
The Dante Exum injury was unfortunate timing, especially because I thought he was Australia’s best player (or one of their best anyway) during last year’s World Cup, but hopefully he’s right to play in the last group game against Greece, if not against Canada.
The offense really fell apart in the minutes Josh Giddey wasn’t out there, and the jump from Matthew Dellavedova to Dante Exum as the reserve point guard should allay some of those concerns about a threat from the point guard position.
BOOMER HIGHLIGHT
I didn’t talk about him at all in the spiel above because I wanted to save it for in here, but Josh Green was absolutely awesome without scoring a single point, but it was one sequence in particular I wanted to highlight.
With 4:26 left in the third quarter, Australia were up 60-56, holding off the furious Spain rally. Patty Mills launches a mid range jumper that clanks high off back iron, and Josh Green soars in for an offensive rebound. The new possession finds its way to Jack McVeigh, who also misses, a three this time, and Green yet again flies in with reckless abandon for a second offensive rebound and kick out to Jock Landale, who eventually scores.
In a time when Australia’s offense was stagnating, any extra possession is worth its weight in gold, and Josh Green created two with outstanding hustle.
BOOMER HIGHLIGHT TWO
OK I usually only do one, but I couldn’t not go into more depth about Dyson Daniels’ game.
13 points (3-4 3PT), 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Josh Giddey will rightfully get a lot of plaudits for his performance, but Josh Giddey is also kind of a known quantity at this point.
Dyson Daniels, twelve months ago, was the 12th man on the World Cup roster that got bundled out unceremoniously after the second group stage. A year on, he’s playing in a role so expanded that it made Matisse Thybulle expendable (I don’t actually believe this for what it’s worth but that’s clearly how the team was picked anyway).
When Thybulle was left off the squad, the expectation was that it would create a pathway for a more important role for Daniels, as the closest facsimile to Thybulle’s length and athleticism on the defensive end, but with more offensive potential.
Well we got the full package in this one, with the newest member of the Atlanta Hawks putting Lorenzo Brown in jail for all 94 feet, all 40 minutes, while staying ready and available to hit open shots when called upon.
Dyson’s role on offense won’t be much more than to catch and shoot off the looks created by Josh Giddey, Patty Mills and hopefully Dante Exum. His big value though, is on defense, and he’ll have tougher tests coming up against the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jamal Murray of Canada, and Greece’s Thomas Walkup, but his ability to play full court was a huge part of why Spain were often rushed in the halfcourt, because they had less time to work with, because Dyson put Lorenzo Brown IN JAIL.
Brown shot 3-10 and had 7 turnovers, mostly with Daniels as his primary defender. Brown, who has Euroleague averages of 13 points and 5 assists over the last five seasons for big clubs like Red Star Belgrade, Fenerbahce, Kazan and Maccabi Tel Aviv, was made to look thoroughly second rate by Bendigo’s finest. A huge sign moving forward for what Daniels can be for this team.
DISLIKE
Touched on it briefly above but the non-Giddey minutes were a rough watch offensively. Hopefully, swapping in Exum back for Dellavedova helps the second unit flow more, but it was largely isolation heavy and stagnant for the most part. I also thought the usage of Joe Ingles given that struggle was curious, as Ingles only played 3 minutes. Thought he would’ve been a useful lever to pull to provide some extra playmaking.
The other big concern, again, as mentioned above, but the struggle on the defensive glass. The Hernangomez brothers and Garuba are hardly elite interior presences and yet they made Australia work overtime to secure defensive boards. Another trend to monitor.
BOX SCORE
NEXT GAME
Australia vs. Canada, Tuesday July 30th, 9PM AEST
KEY MATCHUP: Dyson Daniels vs. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
In the other Group A match from the first matchday, Canada handled Greece 86-79, a game the Canadians largely had under control save for some late Giannis Antetokounmpo heroics to nearly pull the Greeks over the top.
Curiously, Canada started Jamal Murray on the bench and only played him 18 minutes, preferring to start the game with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, RJ Barrett, Luguentz Dort and Dillon Brooks flanking big man Dwight Powell.
The defensive matchups here will be interesting, and if Canada starts that lineup again, I could see the Boomers dropping Nick Kay to the bench to bring in some more defensive mobility in the starting lineup, but Goorjian will probably stay inflexible.
Anyway, Canada’s head of the snake is Shai, the MVP contender from the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. He had a relatively quiet night offensively by his lofty standards against Greece, scoring 21 points, while RJ Barrett led the team with 23.
Barrett himself also poses a key matchup problem given his ability to attack the basket and score at all three levels, so I will be interested to see how the Boomers stack up defensively, whether they maybe even play some zone to combat the defensive deficiencies of Mills and Giddey, because I doubt either of them will be benched.
Still, I’d expect Daniels to take the brunt of the matchup against SGA, to pick him up full court, fight around screens, and funnel him towards the help. Shai is an expert operator in the midrange specifically, and even though the other Canadians in that starting unit are threats (Dillon Brooks hung 39 on the USA in their World Cup win last year), not to mention Jamal Murray off the bench, I expect Shai to be priority numbers one, two and even three.
Force the ball out of Shai’s hands, scramble and recover, and rebound as a group.
#GoldVibesOnly