The final eight has now been determined in the Olympic men’s basketball tournament, and Australia is still very much in the mix. The Boomers will be playing Argentina, the 2004 Olympic gold medalists, in one of four knockout games to determine who will be in the final four. The other three quarterfinal matches have Italy versus France, Slovenia versus Germany and Spain against the United States.
In the tournament to date, at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, the Aussies have a perfect record of three wins and zero losses. They have beaten Nigeria 84-67, Italy 86-83, and Germany 89-76. In two of the three contests, Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs was the leading scorer as he had 25 points against Nigeria, and then 24 points against Germany.
The Americans seem to have things back on track after losing their opening game of the Olympic tournament, 83-76 to France. They have been dominant in their last two victories in beating Iran 120-66, and the Czech Republic by a score of 119-84. Despite having a loss in the tournament, the Americans still have the highest points for and against ratio of +82 among the eight teams left in the Olympic men’s basketball tournament.
The Boomers however were not the only undefeated team after the preliminary round. The others were France and Slovenia. In addition to beating the United States, France beat the Czech Republic 97-77, and Iran 79-62. In two of France’s games, Evan Fournier of the Boston Celtics was their leading scorer.
Slovenia meanwhile leads the tournament with 329 points (a remarkable 14 more points than the United States). Their success has been because of the offensive prowess of Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who now has averaged 28.3 points per game in the Olympic Games so far. To date, Slovenia has beaten Argentina 118-100, Japan 116-81, and Spain 95-87.
