82-70 LOSS
Spain moved the ball well early but failed to capitalise on their good looks, especially around the basket with Pau Gasol in particular, and they finished with just 14 1st quarter points. The Boomers were primed to make a move in the quarter but their lack of shooting let them down once again and their lead only got out to 5, instead of double digits.
Patty Mills was aggressive but couldn’t get anything going in the half court. Once again he struggled with his outside shot and his confidence was affected. He seemed a little bit anxious but looked at his best in transition using his quickness to his advantage.
Spain got it going offensively in the middle two quarters blowing the game open displaying an offensive balance that the Boomers simply didn’t have. Pau Gasol turned around his slow start and was dominant inside, in transition, and even hit a three, whilst Rudy Fernandez was deadly from behind the arc.
Two talking points have surrounded the playing time of David Barlow and Peter Crawford, and surprisingly Crawford didn’t see a minute despite the Aussies continual struggles from deep. Barlow has played a limited role on the back of his poor Olympic preparation game form where he shot just over 28% from the field. If your wondering about Crawford’s shooting, he shot 36.7% from 3 in the preparation games and 40% from 3 in the latest NBL season.
Aleks Maric is another who has seen limited action, with foul trouble and a poke to the eye forcing him off the court. Of the current 12 man Boomer squad, coming into the Olympics Maric had the best rebounding average in the team over the last 4 years, so for him to play just 17 total minutes over 2 games is disappointing.
