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Good morning, friends - it's Boomer time


THE intragroup stage may be over but before we move on to the wee hours of Monday morning, it would be remiss to not revisit the Boomers' best moments from the Group D games.

We all have our favorites, I’m sure but mine, in no particular order were the following:

Ryan Broekhoff sticks a couple of triples in the first quarter against Slovenia. Did they forget the scout?

Brad Newley steals the ball and slams it down against Slovenia.

The delayed Balazic defensive flop when the big fake realised Aron Baynes threw a mini elbow back at him.

Why was that a highlight for me? Because when Goran Dragic is bitching and moaning about Australia losing to Angola, cheat plays such as those of his teammates just make anything he says completely disingenuous.

Broekhoff starting with two threes against Korea. Did they read the scout?

Baynes both aggressive and deft in the early going.

The 15-0 run with dunks by Joe Ingles, Baynes and Cam Bairstow, the last one started with a near court-length pass by Ingles to Broekhoff for the sweet mind-air assist.

Ingles scoring a layup, intercepting the inbounds pass, stepping back for the three – five points in five seconds.

Dante Exum to Nate Jawai for the dunk and Chris Goulding with the corner three to close the game against Korea, everyone on the scoresheet.

Baynes with 10 points in five minutes as the Boomers pants Lithuania early.

Ingles with the inbounds intercept for another “where did he come from?” three.

Matthew Dellavedova with the floater, Exum to Brock Motum, Newley with the triple in a 30-point first quarter.

Delly starting the second with a three, the Boomers holding Lithuania to eight second-period points and closing the half on Ingles’ classic step-back three.

The Boomers weathering Lithuania’s comeback best with Broekhoff one of the key men at both ends of the floor.

David Andersen stepping it up during the Lithuania assault.

Baynes starting the scoring against Mexico with a reverse dunk and dominating Gustavo Ayon.

Great Adam Gibson defence leading to a Newley layup and Newley’s wicked move through traffic to close the first half scoring by putting Australia ahead.

Broekhoff lighting up the third quarter with four triples to put down Mexico’s resistance, then his feed for the Jawai slam.

And Jawai’s sneaky smile.

Great play for Bairstow’s dunk.

Gibson’s threes to close the first and second quarters against Angola, plus his great backdoor pass for Goulding to dunk it.

Exum scoring and handling the heavy physical attention.

Goulding’s three threes in the second and Bairstow’s little 6-0 mini-run in the third.

Motum revealing he too has three-point range.

Australia's burgeoning international maturity in how it went about the Angola game.

And throughout the highlights, a staple has been Australia’s hustling, helping, harassing defence which disrupted Lithuania so very well.

OK, I have two which stand out, though you probably only are aware of one.

That one is the Ingles double, when he scored against Korea, then stole the ball and nailed a three for good measure.

You have to love that kind of mojo.

The other one occurred after the Mexico game and happened at the post-match press conference attended by always-candid coach Andrej Lemanis and Brad Newley.

In a room full of English, Spanish and Mexican journos, when Newley was asked for his opening statement, he brought down the house with: “Buenos dias amigos.”

So now, on to Barcelona!

And in case you are wondering, ABC2 will show the Round-of-16 match against Turkey live at 4am in the eastern states, 3.30am in SA and NT and from 2am in the West.

Sep 6

Content, unless otherwise indicated, is © copyright Boti Nagy.