Chris Pike’s Boomers Olympics Preview: Game 3

Posted on August 2, 2024August 2, 2024 | Posted by TABtouch

Game 3 v Greece (7:30pm WST Friday 2nd August)

To guarantee a place in the knockout stages at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games the Australian Boomers must hit back from a loss to Canada and overcome a Greece team led by former NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

It has been a mixed bag in the first two games in Paris for the Boomers with a first up 92-80 victory against arch-nemesis Spain but then back on Tuesday night it was a 93-83 defeat at the hands of Canada.

That loss to RJ Barrett, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Canada highlighted some areas of concerns for the Boomers. That included not having that natural lockdown defender in the squad, which there is no natural fix for while in the middle of the Olympics.

The three-point shooting was also a concern with the team going 8/25 from downtown on the night against Canada. There’s nobody in the team you would call a natural knockdown shooter so again, there’s no easy fix for that.

Turnovers were again a concern. While the Boomers did also turn the ball over 16 times against Spain, they were able to overcome that with some better three-point shooting at 12/24 from behind the arc along with 46 rebounds to 33.

The 16 turnovers weren’t as easy to overcome against a more potent Canadian team on Tuesday and now they face a must-win situation to guarantee moving into the next round on Friday night against Greece.

The Greek team might have lost their first two matches in Paris by seven points both to Canada and Spain, but any team featuring Antetokounmpo can’t be taken lightly.

The Milwaukee Bucks powerhouse has combined for 61 points and 16 rebounds across those first two games.

The Boomers don’t have an obvious match up for him but the job is likely to mostly fall to former Perth Wildcats NBL championship winning power forward Nick Kay.

Because of the lack of an athlete to guard Antetokounmpo with the combination of his power and explosiveness, getting on him for a combined over 37.5 points and rebounds at $1.95* isn’t unrealistic.

The Boomers can still win even with a big game from Antetokounmpo due to having greater depth in their squad, but another strong rebounding performance, taking better care of the ball and shooting better from deep will need to happen.

Josh Giddey needs to take charge once more for Australia and while his biggest job is running the offence and setting up the shooters, he can also score after having 36 points and 14 assists over the first two games.

He looks a good option at $1.95* for over 24.5 points and assists combined.

He is an Australian hero, but Patty Mills had a horror game against Canada with eight points on 2/10 shooting with the Boomers outscored by 16 points with him on the floor.

As a result, coach Brian Goorjian might look to other options and that could include an increased role for Dante Exum as his finger injury continues to improve.

He looks a good option to score over 9.5 points at $1.90* while Jock Landale will keep being the focal point inside so getting on him for a combined over 22.5 points and rebounds at $1.85* should be safe.

Verdict: Australia at $1.34*

*Odds correct as at 9am 2nd August 2024.

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