‘No one fears them anymore’: Boomers make ‘statement’ win as US arrogance backfires

Australia made it two wins from two games in its Olympic warm-up games in Las Vegas, taking the scalp of Team USA, who was condemned to its second consecutive loss.

The Boomers won 91-83, with Patty Mills and Joe Ingles starring against a team packed with All-Star talent.

The turning point in the game was when Australia’s bench was on the court and opened up a five-point advantage and despite briefly surrendering the lead in the fourth, the Boomers went on an 11-1 run to finish off the game.

Mills led the scoring with 22 points to Ingles’ 17, while Matisse Thybulle shone in defence. For USA, All-Star Damian Lillard was the main outlet with 22 points, including eight three-pointers.

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Mills torches Team USA in shock win | 02:06

Speaking after the game, Mills said: “We understand at the start of this campaign that for us to be able to be really competitive and achieve our goals, we need to hang our hat on the defensive end – especially against a team like the US. The get out and make easy lay-ups and dunks, to do that was pretty impressive for our second game.

“We’re not satisfied, we’ve still got a long way to go and can still get a lot better but as I said, defence is where we’re going to hang our hat for the whole campaign.

“We believe in our entire team with everyone being able to step onto the floor and make a massive impact with guys coming off the bench. We’re deep and not a lot of people might know a lot of people on our team but they’re able to step up, come up and make big plays in the defensive end and the offensive end and take the shots. It’s a credit to all the work we’re putting in together and trusting and believing in one another and for us to achieve our goal we’ve got to do it together and this was an example of that.”

When asked what a medal would mean, Mills said: “No words would be able to explain. But heads down, in the sand, we’re all in the trenches together. We know what it’ll mean to us, we know what it’ll mean to our whole country but we’ve got a job to do and we’re entirely focused on that.”

It’s a disastrous start to camp for Team USA, who suffered a shock defeat to Nigeria in its first game in Las Vegas and the reaction online suggested it’s not going to be the cakewalk to the gold medal for Kevin Durant and co that everyone assumed.