The Boomers narrowly survived the ‘Group of Death’ to advance to the final eight in the Men’s Basketball at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. They’ll face European powerhouse, Serbia in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night at 10:30pm (AEST). We bring you our game full preview and best bet for the clash below!
2024 Paris Olympic Games – Men’s Basketball
Australia vs Serbia (Tuesday 10:30pm AEST)
It hasn’t been the Paris Olympics that perhaps the Boomers were hoping for so far, but they’ve still done enough to make their way out of Group A AKA the ‘Group of Death’ in second place ahead of Greece and Spain and behind the undefeated Canada.
One of the main question parks surrounding the Boomers lack of success through three games in Paris (1W, 2L) has been the coaching decisions made by Brian Goorjian. We’ve already touched on the fact that Matisse Thybulle didn’t make the 12-man squad, but the guys that made it ahead of him in Joe Ingles and Duop Reath have barely seen any court time – so why are they there?
On top of that, Nick Kay as the starting power forward has been a disaster and either Jack McVeigh or Duop Reath need their opportunity going forward. Matthew Dellavedova, to his credit, played some terrorising defence against Greece and was the catalyst for the Boomers fourth quarter comeback… only to be taken out of the game with a couple of minutes to go.
Clearly there are some big decisions that Goorjian needs to make ahead of this do or die quarterfinal clash, otherwise it’ll likely be his last game in charge of the Boomers if they’re to bow out cheaply.
Elsewhere, Serbia managed to navigate their way out of Group C in second place behind the gold medal favourites, USA. Serbia were smashed by 26 points in their opening game in Paris by the Americans, but were able to get the job done against the lower-ranked nations in the group in Puerto Rico (107-66) and South Sudan (96-85).
The head of the snake for the Serbs is Nikola Jokic – the best basketball player on the planet. He’s won 3 of the past 4 MVPs in the NBA and has been at his dominant best in Paris. There’s still plenty of quality around Jokic with the likes of Bogdan Bogdanovic and Nikola Jovic absolute snipers from deep range.
Game Prediction: Due to superior form and top-end talent, Serbia have been priced as the clear favourites to get past Australia. The key for the Australians is to try and speed up Jokic and Serbia and turn it into a fast-paced transition game where they can use their superior athleticism, but speeding up Jokic is something that every NBA team tries to do, yet actually doing it is next to impossible such is his poise and feel for the game.
In saying that, I feel the Boomers have been priced a little long here and are more than capable of at least keeping things close with their elite defence. The result in this game is certainly no forgone conclusions and taking the +7.5 handicap available looks to be a great bet in what I expect to be a tight contest throughout.
Australia +7.5
$1.92 (1.5 Units)
