By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
LILLE, France – Australia is now crossing its fingers ahead of the imminent clash between Spain and Canada in the stacked Group A of the Olympic Games 2024.
With a win by the European champions, they will be eliminated from contention three years after winning the bronze medal in Tokyo. With the opposite result, instead, the Boomers will still advance as second despite today’s 77-71 defeat to Greece, which locked the 3rd position.
In the game’s aftermath, head coach Brian Goorjian gave his thoughts. “Summing up the campaign, I’d have to think about it a little more. But if we move forward, again, this is what I just think it’s really good”, he first opened.
“A lot of those young guys, our two-point guards, just going through the process of looking after the ball, not playing hero ball, keeping it off the floor, and that sets up our three-quarter court defense, and that’s how we win”, he continued.
“So there’d be a lot of cuts from the second half, and I would put the first half in a box, and as we move forward, I would go directly to the second half and build off that”, he followed.
Trying to give an explanation to his team’s poor first-half performance, he kept it clear. “Horrible shots, turnovers, nine turnovers. We’re back to how we had a half in the other game”, he said.
Then, he celebrated the importance of Giannis Antetokounmpo. “If the court is open, you’ve got no chance. If he’s got momentum, you’ve got no chance”, he said. “In the second half, we’ve got our defense back. In the first half, we didn’t, and we didn’t because of what we were doing offensively. So, again, we talked about it, and at least we did it in the second half”, Brian Goorjian concluded.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA Basketball
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