Basketball On The Internet.

IT REMAINS no less important today than it was yesterday to not get too carried away with Australia's 92-98 overnight loss to white-hot Olympic gold medal favourite USA in Abu Dhabi, although the work of Jock Landale and Jack McVeigh does warrant special mention.

Landale took on the might of the USA's "bigs", humbling Joel Embiid while compiling an impressive game-high 20 points at 75 per cent, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals in 27 minutes.

But for foul woes, and two of his four were in the referee's imagination - 20 Boomers fouls to 13 to some extent spoke to the USA's intimidation factor and influence of the crowd's excitement at seeing the NBA stars - he clearly showed how much his late injury-forced absence scuttled Australia's 2023 FIBA World Cup campaign.

According to as yet unconfirmed reports today, McVeigh is considering a two-way contract offer from Landale's Houston Rockets, showing as he did against China he has no fears of performing at this level after his magnificent NBL championship season.

McVeigh had nine points in 11 minutes and must have wanted to pinch himself, first guarding Jayson Tatum who he most likely watched on TV recently winning the NBA championship with Boston Celtics, before next switching onto LeBron James.

Josh Giddey was the other major performer for the Aussies, with 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and of the starting five coach Brian Goorjian trialled, was neck-and-neck with Landale for our most impressive player.

The other possibly surprise starter who justified the faith was Dyson Daniels with 14 points at 75 per cent, three rebounds, an assist, three steals and some very focused defensive work.

Tokyo Olympics hero Patty Mills again struggled, keeping the spotlight firmly on his starting role with five points at 25 per cent and a team-high five turnovers in 22 minutes.

Nick Kay also surprised by retaining his starting spot and wasn't awful. But then he also wasn't sufficiently hot to consign Portland Trail Blazer Duop Reath to a team-low two minutes of action.

The other big plus was Will Magnay in the middle, his eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in 11 minutes, with three rebounds, two steals and the Boomers' only block of the night, leaving no doubt he brings an inside presence unseen since Andrew Bogut's retirement.

While the six-point margin and exceptional 55-45 second-half fightback from the early US bombardment - they hit 12-of-29 threes to 4-of-18 and their first 12 points all were from long range - truth is both teams were experimenting as you should in a practice game/exhibition.

The US still is finding its identity and 18 turnovers reflected the team is not yet in the sync it will be by Paris, given it has further practice game fine tuning to come against Serbia and South Sudan.

Anthony Davis still was a beast, Devin Booker cool down the stretch, Anthony Edwards and Bam Adebayo also making their presences felt.

While Matthew Dellavedova only played four minutes, he had two rebounds, two assists and a steal to be a key figure in the Boomers final quarter comeback, although the USA never truly looked in danger of coughing up the result.

Australia backs up this morning in Abu Dhabi against Serbia, the match televised on ESPN/Fox from 2am AEST.

USA 98 (Davis 17, Booker 16, Edwards 14, Adebayo, Embiid, James 10; Davis 14 rebs; Tatum 5 assts) d AUSTRALIA BOOMERS 92 (Landale 20, Giddey 17, Daniels 14, McVeigh 9, Magnay 8; Giddey 8 rebs; Giddey 7 assts) in Abu Dhabi.