Andrew Bogut pinpoints moment behind Boomers' demise after heartbreak for Aussies at Olympics
Australia let a huge first half lead slip to be knocked out of the men's basketball by Serbia.
Aussie basketball legend Andrew Bogut has pinpointed exactly where it went wrong for his countrymen after the Boomers squandered a big first half lead to be knocked out of the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics by Serbia in over-time. The Aussie men's basketball team got off to a stunning start against the World No.4 Serbians and jumped out to a commanding 24-point lead in the second quarter, with just over six minutes remaining before halftime.
It looked like the type of lead that was going to propel the Boomers - bronze medallists at the Tokyo 2020 Games - into the semi-finals in Paris. But the Serbs gradually and systematically clawed back Australia's lead as the late-quarter fade-outs the Boomers had been guilty of came back to haunt them again.
Unlike in the NBA, where they play 48-minute games made up of four 12-minute quarters, international games are only 40 minutes (or four 10-minute quarters) long. And former NBA champion Bogut said the Aussie players simply failed to adjust and invited the Serbs back into the contest after a disappointing end to the half that saw Serbia cut Australia's advantage from 24 points down to 12.
The Serbs rode the momentum to surge ahead in the second half only to see Boomers veteran Patty Mills send the game into over-time with a basket at the death. But Serbia stepped up again to claim a 95-90 win, with Australia coach Brian Goorjian stepping down from his role in the aftermath as the Aussies came to terms with their costly collapse.
“I think for FIBA games with 40 minute games, you have to finish quarters and finish halves. We played a fantastic 17-minute half, but that last three minutes they cut it back from 24 to 12,” Bogut said on the Gold Standard podcast. “We had Serbia on the ropes and couldn’t finish them off which is the most heartbreaking thing.”
Former Boomers guard Brad Newley agreed and said those final few minutes of the first half were a massive turning point in the contest, allowing Serbia to snatch the momentum that they ran with for the remainder of the second half. “It was almost like they (Serbia) could smell that blood in the water going into halftime,” Newley added. “That 12 point margin at halftime would have meant for some shaky conversations at halftime.”
Andrew Gaze bemoans key moments that went against Australia
Aussie basketball great Andrew Gaze also pointed out some dodgy calls that went against the Boomers, such as a flop from Aleksa Avramovic that could have resulted in a tech foul for the Serbia star. Avramovic pulled out the theatrics to try and trick the referee into giving Will Magnay a flagrant foul, with Gaze lashing out on Nine's coverage.
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"No, you don't need that. That's an indictment on the game when you're doing that type of stuff," Gaze said on Channel 9. "He's hearing the boos too. I reckon the fans agree that perhaps it's too much... please give me a spell. Come on. Now, that should be a technical foul for a flop. And Australia should be going to the line to shoot a free throw. There's nothing in that whatsoever."
And there was also controversy in the dying seconds after Mills hit a clutch bucket to tie the scores. Down by two points with seconds remaining, Mills had the final shot of regular time and hit a tough floater in traffic to send the game to over-time. But there were suggestions the Serbia coach might have asked for a timeout they didn't have as the clock ran down, which the referees could have assessed as a tech foul and given the Boomers a free-throw to win the game. It would have been harsh on Serbia but FIBA rules are the same as the NBA in that calling for a timeout that a team doesn't have should result in a tech and free-throw.
Bogut said the defeat reminded him of a Boomers' loss to Spain at the 2019 World Cup that still "haunts" him to this day and suggested it would be similar for the Aussies after their heartbreak in Paris. “I think this game was very similar (to the Spain defeat in 2019)," Bogut said. "I felt like we lost the game three separate times. It felt like there were three different games within the game.
“I thought in that first half is where we lost the game; especially the last four minutes were very costly. We should have had a 20 plus point half time lead. Serbia went on a run and cut it back to 12.” Mills admitted afterwards that it just wasn't Australia's day but says it was special to make the shot that sent the game into over-time, despite six-time NBA All-Star Nikola Jokic proving the hero for Serbia with two stops and two buckets to seal victory.
with AAP
