MELBOURNE (Paulo Kennedy’s View from Downunder) - After Tuesday night's Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament Quarter-Finals, this column was going to be all about dissecting the Opals and how they went from a team striving for gold to an inglorious early exit at the hands of Serbia.

However, that approach would do a great disservice to their male compatriots in their charge to the podium, so I'll save that for the cold light of day.

Instead, let's talk Boomers! Not only did their 4-1 group record equal Australia's best-ever at an Olympics or FIBA Basketball World Cup, their romp over Lithuania ended a 16-year drought since our last win in a knockout game. Phew!


The incredible 26-point margin over the Green Machine blitzed the Boomers' previous best winning Quarter-Final margin. In fact Australia's previous three quarter-final victories - in 1988, 1996 and 2000 –were by a combined eight points.

It should be noted, however, that this was a Lithuanian team that had fallen apart in the back end of the tournament, so the margin perhaps wasn't just a reflection of the Boomers' performance.

Regardless, the five wins so far have been by a combined 112 points, light years ahead of the previous best of 79 points in 1996, which was greatly assisted by some less-than-stellar Greek effort in the final pool game.

Pass the potion
So what has made this Boomers team so good? A full analysis will have to come once the after the dust has settled, but as I mentioned in last week’s column, this team is passing the ball like no Australian side before it.

They have now dished off 160 assists in six games, dwarfing the 1996 Boomers team record of 147 in eight games. That is, they're dishing off eight more dimes per game than the next best Aussie team in World Cup or Olympic history!

On a global scale, only the 1992 USA 'Dream Team' has averaged better with 29.9 assists per game, and if this Boomers team maintains or improves their 26.7 rate through the medal round, they will move past the 1996 USA team - which averaged 26.3 - into second place on the all-time list.

From an individual point of view, Matthew Dellavedova is averaging an incredible 7.7 assists per game, the most by any player in an Olympics or World Cup since the great Sarunas Marciulionis dished off 8.3 at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.


By my count, Delly will set a new Australia record even without dishing off a single assist in the medal round and will set a new world mark if he manages to feed off 21 or more in those two games.

Repeat gold
While this would be the first major tournament Australia's men have ever won, Andrew Bogut and Damian Martin were teammates on the 2003 FIBA U19 World Championship winning Emus, the pair reunited in green and gold for the first time since in Rio.

Martin is widely considered Australia's greatest ever defensive player and he's been terrorising  guards in Rio just like as in the NBL. Damo ranks fifth in the tournament in steals at 1.4 per game despite playing just 11.7 minutes per game. I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone in Perth to know he ranks first in steals per minute.

It seems coach Andrej Lemanis has been keeping Martin for the right moment, which was to harass Mantas Kalnietis in the Quarter-Finals and, you'd presume, Milos Teodosic in today's Semi-Final.

To demonstrate the difference Martin's defensive intensity makes, the Boomers are +57 in the 59 minutes he has been on court. Against Lithuania, the Aussies were +21 in the 16 minutes he played and +5 in the other 24 minutes.

If there's another player who could challenge for the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) defender title it would be Bogut, whose IQ and direction to teammates at that end of the floor is elite, complemented by his ability to protect the rim and clean the defensive glass.

Offensively his passing has been incredible, averaging 4.4 assists per game. The best ever dime-dishing performance by a centre at a major global tournament came from legendary pair Jose "Piculin" Ortiz of Puerto Rico and Arvydas Sabonis of Lithuania, averaging 3.3 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Bogut needs just five assists in the medal round to eclipse that mark.  


Rolling the pick
One thing Bogut can't do defensively, as least consistently, is step out and actively disrupt the guard coming off the ball-screen. While I'm sure Lemanis would love a fleet of bigs who could defend the perimeter and recover, he hasn't got them and it seems to me that's caused an innovative new approach.

If you can't bring the pressure to the guard, take the guard to the pressure. The Boomers guards have been getting up-and-in as their opponent approaches the ball-screen, aggressively forcing them to use the pick more quickly than they would usually like.

For many years Aussie teams have been tormented by quality European and South American guards using the ball-screen as they like, particularly the re-screen, but their approach in Rio ensures guards are coming off the pick on the Boomers' terms, meaning their defence can be prepared and proactive rather than waiting and reactive.

I suspect this is the thinking behind picking Dellavedova, Martin, Kevin Lisch and Patty Mills in the same team, ensuring there can always be two guards on the floor capable of disrupting on-ball action and having the speed and hustle to recover.

If you consider the success the Boomers have had against the ball-screen compared to the reactive Opals, it’s probably fair to say it’s been a success.

They've faced four pretty handy point guards in Tony Parker, Kyrie Irving, Teodosic and Kalnietis. While each of those have had their moments off the leash, their combined output against the Boomers has been 43 per cent shooting and 3.8 assists per game. Against other opponents those numbers have been 50 per cent and 6.2 assists per game.

There's plenty more to chat about from what is a fascinating and incredibly impressive team to watch, but let's do that next week.

For now, good luck Boomers!

If you want something to look out for in the final two games, check out the Australian's disciplined shot selection. They've taken just 32 two-point shots from outside the key all tournament, and 11 of those came in the second half of the blowout against China.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA

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