Gold gone but medal dream alive
TweetDISAPPOINTED. Gutted. Shattered. That's how a nation felt today when the Boomers were blitzed 87-61 by Serbia in their Olympic Games semi final.
But if that's how WE were feeling, imagine how the Boomers are right now.
It will take more masterful coaching from Andrej Lemanis - who tried everything today to stall the inevitable freight-train which Serbia proved to be - to restore his team back to the side which belted Lithuania in the quarter finals.
What a difference a day or two can make.
But if Serbia can affect a 41-point turnaround from its 15-point intrapool loss to the Aussies, then nothing is impossible.
It's just that the measure of Serbia's dominance today would have been a massive body blow and taken a huge emotional toll on a team which believed to a man it was on a gold-plated mission in Rio.
That's gone. Forgotten. Finished. Now it's time to end the reign of Spain.
The challenge is to rediscover all the traits which brought Australia to this pinnacle of unprecedented Olympic success. There is still a medal to be won, history to be achieved. And this still is the team to do it.
Serbia did its homework and executed its gameplan to perfection, Milos Teodosic (22 points, 5 assists) getting the ball rolling offensively in an 8-0 start which had Lemanis pressing the timeout button at 7:46.
MILES TOO GOOD: Milos Teodosic took on and shattered Aussie dreams. Picture courtesy FIBA
The Serbs were brutally physical defensively - as most expected - scragging, bumping, pushing and holding the Boomers, taking them right out of what they wanted to do. Hats off to them, they were brilliant. They jumped into the passing lanes and played defence as men possessed. Then they crashed the boards with similar venom.
It led to second-guessing by the Aussies, bad decision-making, hasty shots as five turnovers and 2-of-15 shooting across the opening period for a five-point total clearly would atest.
Having introduced the element of doubt with their fierce and relentless approach to lead 16-5 at the break, the Serbs then capitalised further.
Certainly, the Boomers' start was better, with Ryan Broekhoff sticking a three for 8-16, Andrew Bogut blocking shots on two Serbian offences and Joe Ingles on the break reducing the deficit to 10-16. Here we come, we probably all thought.
But no sooner had Australia escaped on the break than Serbia's coach Sasha Djordjevic called an immediate timeout to again emphasise the gameplan - No Aussie fast breaks, no uncontested passes, no uncontested shots, no respite.
SMALL VICTORIES: Joe Ingles throws one down. Picture coutesy FIBA
They responded accordingly, Teodosic with a 3-pointer to set off another 8-0 Serbian charge.
Matthew Dellavedova made some uncharacteristic errors - mainly on defence, surprisingly - but he was no orphan, Ingles and Patty Mills with back-to-back turnovers on consecutive Boomer offences. They stayed off Ingles, inviting him to shoot and they stayed all over Mills, inviting him to pass.
If Serbia's plan was to rattle and unsettle, it over-achieved. Early shots by the Boomers led to Serbia surging and growing in confidence, ahead 35-14 at halftime, containing Australia to its lowest single-half score since it mustered 18 against Canada in 1956!
The Boomers were 6-of-29, 2-of-14 on threes, had 11 turnovers and were being outrebounbded almost 2-1, behind 15-29 in that halftime count.
While the second half was somewhat more competitive (47 to 52), truth is this was over at the main interval. The Aussies hit 10-of-13 free throws in the third after not even getting there in the first half, but Serbia was shooting at 51 per cent.
Apart from the wayward shooting (33 per cent to 53) the most telling stats probably were the assists being down to 14 and turnovers up to 16.
OK. That's done. Gone.
Now it is time to regroup as only this group can.
In 1988 when Yugoslavia (which was a team comprised mainly of Serbians and Croatians) thrashed Australia by 21 in the Seoul Olympic semi final, the Boomers could not match the USA for bronze, whacked by 29.
In Sydney in 2000, we had our best chance but the Boomers were ambushed by France by 24 in the semi - much as they were ambushed today - and Lithuania capitalised on Luc Longley being injured in that match to win bronze by 18 points.
It really was only in Atlanta, in 1996 Australia went into the bronze medal game without any qualms, never expected to beat the USA in their semi and losing it by 28.
"In Atlanta we had the USA in the semi so the loss had very little impact on our morale and is probably a big part as to why we had our best chance at the bronze," said five-time Olympian Andrew Gaze who three times has been as close to medalling as the Boomers are now.
Bogut was hurting today and Dellavedova wasn't himself either. The toll has been great, the disappointment palpable. This has been our greatest Olympic campaign but there remains the unfinished business of bringing home a medal.
Spain is ranked No.2 in the world by FIBA and today took the USA to an 82-76 result in their semi.
Today was a rough day. Midnight tomorrow cannot come soon enough, Australia has leapfrogged back amid the world's greatest balling nations and still is just 40 minutes away from history.
SERBIA 87 (Teodosic 22, Markovic 14, Macvan 12, Raduljica 11; Jokic 11 rebs; Teodosic, Markovic 5 assts) d AUSTRALIA BOOMERS 61 (Mills, Motum 13, Ingles 12; Baynes 8 rebs; Broekhoff 4 assts).