Australia reaches semifinals of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament

Patty Mills (YouTube)

Australia is in the semifinals of the Olympic men’s basketball tournament. On Tuesday, the Boomers not only beat Argentina, (the only Olympic gold medalists in men’s basketball besides the United States since the NBA sent their best in 1992), they annihilated them. In an exceptional display of offense and defense, Australia won the fourth and final quarterfinal game in men’s basketball by a score of 97-59.

For the third time in the Olympic tournament, Australia was led in scoring by Patty Mills of Canberra. The San Antonio Spurs point guard scored 18 points. Meanwhile, Utah Jazz swingman Joe Ingles of Adelaide led Australia with seven assists. Ingles also reached double figures in scoring as he had 11 points.

In a 38-point blowout no one saw coming, Australia actually had the most points  and gave up the fewest points among all of the quarterfinal winners on Tuesday. In other action, Slovenia defeated Germany 94-70, the United States trumped Spain 95-81 and France beat Italy 84-75.

So who does Australia play next? You guessed it, the powerful United States–the gold medalist in men’s basketball in each of the last three Olympic Games. At this time, the Americans are getting outstanding production from Kevin Durant, who seems extremely healthy at the moment. The 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player led the Americans in scoring in their quarterfinal game as he had a team-high 29 points. Spain meanwhile received 46.9% of their scoring from Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio, who had 38 points. In the first half, Spain’s experience paid off as they went toe-to-toe with the Americans, but in the second half, the United States got their transition game going, and outscored Spain 52-38.

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