Culture

HOLY SHIT, The Boomers Nearly Beat The US And Fans From Both Countries Are Losing It

This is a big deal.

by Meg Watson  11 August 2016

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In what was one of the most exciting moments of the Rio Olympics so far and definitely the one that’s made you most late for work, the Australian men’s basketball team nearly carried out a huge upset over the US this morning. Though it went right down to the wire, the Boomers ended up losing the match 98-88.

Don’t be fooled by that score difference. Australia were leading for a good deal of the game and thoroughly scared the shit out of the US stars and their supporters. Though the whole team put in a phenomenal effort, reports are saying our own big names like Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova and Andrew Bogut “lived up to their billing and then some”. The Boomers were up by two points going into the last quarter.

This is an enormous deal considering the prestige of the US team. The squad is stacked with huge NBA players like Kevin Durant, DeAndre Jordan, Kyrie Irving and more, and the country has only missed out on the gold three times since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1936. Though Australia is certainly on the rise, the best position we’ve ever clocked at the Games is fourth. We finished seventh in 2012 after being knocked out by the US 112-86.

Australian star Andrew Bogut was disappointed with the final result today, telling reporters courtside that the Boomers “had every opportunity to try to push the game”. “We lost the game, we cannot sugarcoat it… It was a decent performance but we can clean things up.”

The fans have been a little less modest:

And the US is exactly how we want ’em:

The Boomers’ next game will be against China on Saturday morning. The Opals are taking on Japan 6.45am tomorrow. TIME TO GET INTO IT.

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Feature image via Basketball Australia.