![]() This time they made more history, reaching the semifinals of the tournament for the first time ever.Īnd Spain was waiting once again. "Team Australia, they've always banded together and there's always been a sense of pride and unity." "If you put together three or four summers in a row, you're gonna build up chemistry and cohesiveness the other teams just might not have. You see a lot of star players commit to summer after summer after summer of national team basketball," NBA insider Shams Charania said. "Team Australia, they have such a dedication to their country. The Boomers were looking for revenge against Spain in the 2019 World Cup semifinal. Rudy Fernandez inbounded the ball to Sergio Rodríguez, who wheeled around a Pau Gasol screen, getting separation from Matthew Dellavedova, turning a corner to see Mills in front of him. The Boomers took an 88-87 lead with 10 seconds left in the game, giving the two-time defending silver medallists one last chance to win the game. The Boomers scored just 14 points in the first half of their semifinal against Serbia, ultimately losing by 26 points as they missed 27 of 31 three-pointers and two-thirds of their shots overall, as the team's not unrealistic "gold-medal aspirations" crumbled.Īnd that disappointment was nothing compared to what was to come in the bronze-medal match against Spain. "I have never been more confident in winning a gold medal than what we saw in Rio," said ex-Boomers captain Andrew Gaze, who played in both those heartbreaking fourth-place finishes.īut the final four was once again a brutal stage for the Aussie men. They were clinical in the quarters as they rolled Lithuania, who had beaten Australia in bronze-medal matches in 19, to reach their first semifinal since Sydney. The campaign at the Rio Games started as well as Australia could have hoped, beating European powerhouses Serbia and France in the group stage.īut a 10-point loss to USA, during which Australia held a half-time lead, confusingly earned them the most plaudits. ![]() It wasn't just Mills the Uluru trip helped the whole team find their "why".įor Ingles, it was a reminder of the joy he got from the sport when he first started playing.Īfter more than a decade of falling before the semifinals, the Boomers travelled to Brazil united, with a singular focus and realistic hopes of an Olympic medal.īut that only made their ultimate failure that much harder to take. Patty Mills was named a flag-bearer for the Tokyo opening ceremony, marking the first time an Indigenous athlete received the honour.
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