Olympic Basketball: Previewing USA vs. Australia
By Danielle
At 5:15 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, Team USA will take on Australia in the quarterfinals. The game will air on the NBC Sports Network (check your local provider for listings).
The US will resume action in men’s basketball this afternoon against Australia at the North Greenwich Arena. Team USA has swept Group A by defeating France, Tunisia, Nigeria, Lithuania and Argentina in Olympic Pool Play this summer. They have won 14 consecutive games in the Olympics now. In pool play, they won by an average margin of 38.2 points per game.
Entering the game, Argentina is 3-2 in in Group B pool play. They lost to Brazil and Spain before going on a 3 game winning streak by defeating China, Great Britain, and Russia.
How they got here: Australia was able to qualify for the 2012 Olympics by winning the 2011 FIBA Oceania Championship. They swept New Zealand 3-0 to earn its Olympic berth.
Team USA is 6-0 against the Australian team in the Olympics. Three games came in the elimination portion of the competition. This is the second Olympics in a row that the US is facing Australia during the quarterfinals. At the Beijing games, Team USA won 118-85.
In Olympic quarterfinals play, the U.S. is undefated with an all-time record of 15-0. During the quarterfinals, Team USA was won by an average of 29.5 points.
Olympic Pool Play record: 78-2 (97.4%)
All-Time Olympic Record: 127-5 (96.1%)
All-Time National Team Record: 114-7
Team USA is winning by scoring an average of 117.8 points per game while holding opponents to 79.6 points per game.
In 5 Olympic games so far, former Kentucky Wildcats star Anthony Davis has played a total of 45 minutes, averaging 11.3 minutes a game. He’s scored 26 points, an average of 6.5 points per game. He’s picked up 14 rebounds, an average of 3.5 rebounds per game. In the 4 contests, Davis has only blocked 3 shots. Davis did not see any action during Saturday’s game against Lithuania.
“They’re a scrappy team,” said Chris Collins, an assistant coach for the US team. “They’re very competitive. They play hard, very well coached and there probably the best team we’ve played that gets out in transition and attacks. They like to play fast. Patty Mills is having an unbelievable tournament, one of the leading scorers. They have a lot of guys that can handle the ball so against our pressure, it’s not going to only be the point guards that are going to have to do a good job but all the guards. We know we’re in for a hard fought game and a team that is going to be very confident playing against us.”
“We have to get off to a good start, try to impose our will defensively,” Collins added about the keys to the game for Team USA. “When we’ve gotten out in passing lanes and we’ve been aggressive and kind of taken teams out of their rhythm of their offense is when we’ve been at our best. We have to continue to do a good job on the boards. Australia is one of the better rebounding teams, especially on the offensive boards. Hopefully if we can do a good job of that, we can get out on the break ourselves and get some easy opportunities.”
The winner will play the winner of Brazil-Argentina on Friday in the semifinals.
Probable Starters
United States
F – Kevin Durant
F – LeBron James
C – Tyson Chandler
G – Kobe Bryant
G- Chris Paul
Australia
F – Joe Ingles
F – David Andersen
C – Aleks Maric
G – Patrick Mills
G – Matt Dellavedova