The Boomers defeated France today in their toughest warmup game on paper as they prepare for the FIBA World Cup, which kicks off in five days’ time.
After being blown out and seeing France take a double-digit lead in the first few minutes, Australia clawed back to close the gap to eight points before the end of the first quarter. Behind an incredible defensive effort and balanced scoring attack, the Boomers came out victorious in the low-scoring affair.
Key takeaways…
Fresh faces need to bring an offensive punch
After France raced out to a 12 point lead in the opening quarter, coach Brian Goorjan was able to stem the flow by inserting the defensive talents of Matisse Thybulle (6 steals), Dante Exum (3 steals) and Jack White (1 block), into the game but scoring was hard to come by.
Patty Mills (11 points) continued to struggle with his shot, as he has through all the Boomers’ warmup games. He shot 0/7 from three during the first half before coming back to hit a few clutch shots in the final moments.
Shooters keep shooting, so it was good to see Patty’s confidence didn’t dip as he looked to shoot himself out of his slump – but the Boomers depend on him finding the hot hand, and he will need to start finding his consistency from deep soon.
After being blown out 27-19 in the first quarter and then managing only 12 points in the second quarter, it has become clear the Boomers need consistent scoring output outside of Mills, who, after doing the heavy lifting at that end of the court for the past 15 years, seems to be slowing down.
The Boomers seemed to be looking for the three a lot – and while this lineup contains a lot of guys who can shoot at a decent clip, it will be a big ask for a lot of this squad to find them consistently. Josh Green looked nice in his seven minutes of game time before an ankle injury saw him miss the remainder of the game. Australia won’t want to be put in a position to shoot themselves out of a hole, and this was particularly evident as Evan Fournier (29 points) led the French attack with little offensive response.
Giddey (12 points) led the Boomers offensively during their Boomers vs World games in Melbourne, but it can’t all left to the 20-year-old, who was kept from scoring at all during the fourth quarter.
Boomers defeat France (78-74) thanks to this @joshgiddey to @Nickkay04 play that helped seal the deal pic.twitter.com/QhFEWL5co8
— AussieHoopla (@aussiehoopla) August 20, 2023
It’s going to be hard to get rebounds
It was always going to be interesting to see how Australia reshuffled after losing Jock Landale to an ankle injury, and France looked to expose the Boomers down low early.
Nick Kay (12 points) drew two soft fouls early, leading to the small ball lineup being thrown out in the first quarter. With Kay and Duop Reath (11 points) off the floor, the Boomers struggled to rotate fast enough, and France scored several easy baskets.
France got plenty of open looks inside and dominated the offensive boards during the first quarter, and with Australia struggling in similar ways in their loss to Brazil last week, this is a glaring issue right now.
While Australia saw Duop Reath drop 26 points against Venezuela in the warmup games, it doesn’t seem that will be the case against the higher-ranked teams in the World Cup. Nick Kay (12 points) was efficient as always, but having seen this chink in the Boomers’ armour, it’ll be interesting to see how larger squads look to expose this weakness during the tournament games.
Duop Reath posterises Rudy Gobert #goboomers pic.twitter.com/ue1VY7K5hP
— AussieHoopla (@aussiehoopla) August 20, 2023
Small ball might just work
In a post-game press conference after the warmup games, Goorj mentioned getting more out of Dante Exum (11 points), which was evident today. He sparked the team with a couple of important buckets in the first quarter when the team were stuck on 5 points for what felt like an eternity, and we did see him in lineups alongside both Giddey and Patty. Dante’s defence, both on and off the ball, was impressive – at one point stripping the ball from Yabusele (who notoriously injured Exum in an ugly Euroleague clash earlier this year) for a slam.
Xavier Cooks (2 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists) was tasked with defending France’s centre Rudy Gobert, and although he gave up plenty of height, the reigning NBL MVP showed the value he can match it up with the biggest of the big men in this FIBA tournament.
Cooks, Joe Ingles (4 points) and Jack White (6 points) were all forced to test their WWE wrestling moves against Rudy Gobert at different times, which proved effective and forced several deflections and a number of fast break baskets.
This team can defend
Australia couldn’t find the basket behind the three-point arc, finishing 6 of 28, but finished the game with 4 blocks and 14 steals. They say, ‘Defence wins championships’ and Australia can only hope this is true.
Matisse Thybulle was the engine that ran the Boomers’ defence, recording 6 steals and a block, but he easily notched up double that amount in deflections and defensive plays that halted the opposition offence. Including two breakaway slams off the back of French turnovers.
How good is that Matisse Thybulle defence #goboomers pic.twitter.com/08qrlIYt9Y
— AussieHoopla (@aussiehoopla) August 20, 2023
Jack White’s ability to rotate to the dunker’s spot and stop multiple looks for the French inside, including a highlight block, was a welcome sight, given coach Goorjan had made it clear that White was the likely name to be cut before Landale’s exit on Thursday.
And Xavier Cooks plays well above his height, aiding in a key moment of the game where Australia gained a defensive stop after Cooks and co switched every on-ball screen and forced a shot clock violation – prompting raucous cheers from the Boomers bench.
Remaining Questions
- Is this elite level of defence enough to reach the medal rounds?
- Who can Australia rely on to score baskets if Mills doesn’t return to FIBA Patty form?
- What role will Dyson Daniels and Chris Goulding have in this tournament, seeing neither saw court time in today’s matchup?
Time will tell.