Dream Team Follow Script
The Age
Thursday August 21, 2008
AUSTRALIAN coach Brian Goorjian said it could have been like a Rocky, a Hoosiers, or any one of those underdog-gets-the-prize movies. It could also have been like Titanic, or a similar Hollywood disaster film.
When the final buzzer sounded, it was probably closer to the latter than the former. It wasn't quite like one of those feel-good movies, because as much as most Australians dreamt it might happen, in reality, the Boomers were never going to get close to this edition of the US Dream Team.Like their previous 11 appearances at the Olympic Games, the Boomers will head home with no medals. This time, however, they leave with something - respect for their performance over the past fortnight. After a slow start to the tournament, to then beat legitimate European powers Lithuania and Russia says a lot for the team, and with promising youngsters such as Pat Mills and Andrew Bogut, a medal may come in four years' times.Mills, effectively just a college kid at St Mary's in the US, was brilliant on the big stage and finished with 20 points and three steals in the 116-85 loss, and brought high praise from both coaches"I thought he put on a hell of a show for a young kid in his first Olympics in an environment like this," Goorjian said. Added US coach Mike Krzyzewski: "I'm glad my Duke [college] team doesn't play St Mary's next year. He's a great guard and he'll be an NBA guard."Krzyzewski was not only raving about Mills but also full of admiration for the Boomers. "It's an honour to play Brian's team. They have been the most difficult team for us to defend. Their offence is so well conceived for their personnel. Their future is extremely bright. The Australian team are a force to be reckoned with. We had to play really well in order to win, they caused us a lot of problems. We're ecstatic because we know we beat an outstanding team."Goorjian said his players could leave China with their heads held high after their performances and agreed that the future looked bright for the team."We had a lot of guys on the floor tonight around the age of 23, 19, 20, looking at Bogut, Patty Mills, Joe Ingles, Brad Newley, they area all young guys and there is a process to be great, which Spain and Argentina have gone through, and we have a chance to do something with these guys," he said.This version of the NBA-laden, USA team hasn't gone easy on anyone this tournament. They won their five pool games by an average of 32 points, and embarrassed the likes of Greece and defending world champions Spain along the way.They are hell bent on redemption from Athens four years ago when they were beaten in the semi-finals by eventual winners Argentina and had to be content with a bronze medal, having won all three previous gold medals since NBA players were allowed to compete at the Games.The US threatened to run away early but the introduction Mills saw the Boomers spark, and at the first break they trailed by just a point, 25-24.But that was as close as the Australian team got, with both Kobe Bryant and LeBron James putting on a clinic. However, the Boomers managed to keep scoring and not allow the margin to blow out.A brilliant fade-away jumper from Bryant, then a Deron Williams buzzer-beating three, did, however, sent the US out to the biggest lead of the game at half-time, 55-43.They then scored the first 14 points of the next quarter - which gave them 19 unanswered points across the two quarters - and suddenly the game was not even close to close, as the led by a whopping 69-43. Making matter worse was that the Boomers lost Andrew Bogut with an ankle injury.Finally four minutes into the quarter, Mills drained a three to end the drought, but the damage had been done. The lead would balloon to as much as 30 during the period, before resting at 28 at the last break, 89-61.The game was gone, and the last quarter was simply about determining how big the final deficit might be.
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