Boomers’ stunning win over Team USA in Games warm-up

Ten days out from the Olympic opening ceremony, Australia pull off arguably the biggest victory in their history with a 91-83 triumph over Team USA.

Patty Mills is fouled by Kevin Durant in the Boomers’ win over Team USA

Boomers star Joe Ingles says Australia’s rise to a history-making second defeat of Team USA has been a journey 12 years in the making.

Just 10 days out from the Olympic opening ceremony, Australia pulled off arguably the biggest victory in their history with a stunning 91-83 exhibition game triumph over Team USA in Las Vegas.

In doing so, Australia became the first country to ever beat USA Basketball in consecutive meetings since the Dream Team (USA with professional players) was formed in 1992.

Inspired by a 22-point showing from captain Patty Mills, another incredible breakout showing from newcomer Matisse Thybulle (12 points, 3 steals, 3 assists, 2 blocks), and elite shooting from Joe Ingles (17 points) and Chris Goulding (11 points), Australia did what seemed impossible – and turbocharged their own Olympic prospects.

The win is Australia’s second all-time against Team USA, following their exhibition win in Melbourne in 2019.

USA Basketball‘s record is now 194 wins and 13 losses since 1992 in exhibition and tournament play (93.7% win record).

“I think the world has realised the quality of Australian basketballers,” Ingles said.

“Obviously, Bogut was the No.1 draft pick, Dante (Exum) the fifth pick and Patty and what he has done.

“We’ve built this thing and the confidence comes with that.

“In 2008 I think we had one NBA player on our roster in Andrew Bogut, there were a lot of guys playing in Europe and Australia.

“But over the course of that 12 years, you look at our roster now and we could easily add a couple of other NBA players if they were available.

“It has completely flipped now, and we’ve only got a couple of NBL and guys who play in Europe.”

Mills was in everything in the fourth quarter, dropping 10 points as Australia came out on top in a seesawing contest – but he credited the team’s tenacious defence for the extraordinary win.

“All defence, for us to be able to be really competitive we need to be able to hang our hat on the defensive end,” Mills said.

And they do it all without key centre Aron Baynes, who knocked knees with USA superstar Bradley Beal less than four minutes into the contest.

Boomers coach Brian Goorjian was confident Baynes would be fine and isn’t expected to spend any time on the sidelines.

“We are feeling good about it,” Goorjian said.

“It is just a temporary situation, so we’ll be good.”

It remains to be seen whether Baynes plays in Australia’s exhibition game against Nigeria on Wednesday from 11.30am.

He could be rested to make sure his knee his 100 per cent fit for Australia’s Tokyo Olympic campaign.

The Boomers did an impressive job in Baynes’ absence, with big men Duop Reath, Nick Kay and Jock Landale all standing up.

Australia’s gutsy win over Argentina on Sunday came in spite of a lacklustre shooting night from many of their biggest stars – but things were always going to be dialled up a notch against the 15-time Olympic champions USA.

However they shot out the blocks, with Ingles’ hot hand giving them an early advantage before Team USA’s Damian Lillard took control of the game – dropping in 16 first-half points to give the home team a 46-37 advantage.

Any fears of a blowout loss were allayed with an enormous third quarter from the Boomers, who finished on a 19-6 run to head into the final break up 69-64 thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Goulding.

But the Boomers had bigger targets in mind against a line-up of NBA all-stars, max contracts and household names.

Lillard finished with 22 points, Brooklyn superstar Kevin Durant had 17 and Washington’s Beal had 12 – but there was little help elsewhere despite a roster littered with genuine megastars of the sport.

Playing tough, physical basketball the Boomers unsettled their more fancied rivals, while their sharpshooters found rhythm from deep – with Ingles, Goulding and Thybulle all connecting on multiple three-point shots.

As a team, Australia shot 41.7 per cent from long-range, a marked improvement on the 32.5 per cent against Argentina.