Australian’s give USA tough basketball workout
August 6, 2008
One advantage of being in Beijing right now is that I get to watch many of the lead up games for the basketball on Chinese tv. Last night I watched the Australian women’s team face off against their main rival for the Olympic basketball gold medal the USA.
The United States ended up defeating Australia 71-67 on Tuesday night to win the FIBA Diamond Ball for Women played in Haining, China. The win gives them a mental edge going into the China Olympic basketball tournament starting on the weekend. The Australians are the reigning world champions.
Watching the game I think Australia can take away enough positives from the match to think they can win their first ever Olympic gold medal on August 23. Before then there is a lot of hard work ahead of them.
Australia’s Penny Taylor had a game-high 19 points. At times the USA threatened to run away with the match however good defense kept the Aussie’s in the match. The USA at one stage had a 10 point advantage.
My daughter was a bit worried about Australia losing. She is only six and likes watching the scores of any sport to make sure Australia wins. I told her it is the Olympics that matter. The USA has defeated Australia in the gold medal game in the past two Olympics.
In the men’s basketball it was also Australia matching up against the USA. The teams were playing in Shanghai in their final warmup match before the Beijing Olympics. Australia put up a solid effort against the gold medal favourites. The final score was 87-76 in favor of the USA.
This match was the closest for the USA basketball team in their preparations for the China Olympics. Dwyane Wade top scored with 22 points. LeBron James with 16 points, Kobe Bryant with 13 points and Carmelo Anthony also helped the USA to the win.
Australia would feel good about themselves following the match. Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian had this to say after the match. “We had Argentina last week and now you come into Team USA and we got out of those two games going into the village on an upbeat and I think with a young team that’s very, very important.”
The USA opens their Olympic basketball tournament against hosts China on August 10. The match will tip off at 22.15 Beijing time. I will be watching that live on CCTV.
Australia open their Olympic campaign against Croatia who reached the Olympics in the recent qualifying tournament in Athens.
Comments
Got something to say?
