Dream to Reality: The Boomers hopes of winning Gold are as good as ever before

Josh Giddey From The Australian Boomers

Are the Australian Boomers Gold Medal bound?

Coming into the 2024 Paris Olympic games fresh off of a Bronze Medal in Tokyo, are the Boomers ready to go deeper and bring home Gold in a wide open Olympic campaign with favourites USA, France and Canada looking shaky as the opening game is right around the corner.

When the Boomers team was announced many thought the squad was not going to be able to match it with the clear favourites in USA, France, Canada and Germany. To the surprise of many throughout the international warm up games the Boomers have looked more then serviceable and with wins in three of the four games against some quality opposition (Serbia, Puerto Rico & France) and the only loss coming to Team USA by 6 points, the dream for Boomers fans of winning a Gold Medal could finally be a reality.

The Boomers kicked off the Warm Up Games with a matchup with clear favourites Team USA. It was a tail of two halves, the USA would get out to a 24 point lead early in the third quarter before the Boomers would put on a massive run to finish the game and almost stealing a massive victory against the Americans. Josh Giddey and Jock Landale provided a well and truly needed one-two punch and putting up great stats as well (Landale: 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, Giddey: 17 points, & rebounds and 7 assists).

Listen to The Basketball Fix break down the Boomers warm up games.

The Boomers next task would be taking on NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and his Serbian teammates. The Boomers would come away with their first win in an impressive fashion winning the contest 84-73. The biggest news though would be Patty Mills and his explosion which has been a big talking point with the Boomers not getting a lot out of the Australian Basketball Legend. Mills would finish with 28 points and 5 assists to propel the Boomers in a way that only Mills can. Serbia do look worrying with not a lot of big names and Nikola Jokic struggling on the court with not much help, the question on most people’s minds is “do Serbia come out of the weak Group C?”

Boomers escape the “Twin Eiffel Towers” and beat France at the buzzer

Puerto Rico would be the next challenge for the Boomers, another opponent for Team USA in the controversial Group C. This really wasn’t much of a challenge for the Boomers, walking away with a 90-75 point win, it would again be “FIBA” Patty who would lead the Boomers with his young sidekick in Josh Giddey. Giddey would finish with 19 points and Mills would pour another 15 points in, as the Boomers would dismantle Puerto Rico and move onto the next challenge that would await them. It was also great to see from a Boomers perspective that they would finish the game with five players in double digits on the scoring end (Giddey, Mills, Landale, Ingles & Green).

For the Boomers the last game was always going to be a challenge. The French National team is filled with NBA players and are seen as one of the major players in walking away with a medal at the Olympic Games. The hometown team lead by Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert, who The Basketball Fix have named the “Twin Eiffel Towers” were both impressive in this game. Wembanyama would pour in 17 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 1 block whilst Gobert would have 8 points, 7 rebounds and 1 block.

This wouldn’t be enough to hold of the Boomers who once again were lead by Mills and Giddey and also had 5 players again in double digits (Mills, Giddey, Daniels, Magney & Reath). But the biggest moment of the game was the clutch layup by young and impressive guard Dyson Daniels who would hit the shot to put the Boomers up by 1 and it would be a lead that ultimately won them the game.

Can the Boomer survive Spain, Canada & Greece to advance?

For the Boomers as a whole they would walk away winning three out of four Warm Up matches and have really earned the respect from a lot of people who have been judging them from the moment the team was announced. Lots of questions have been asked of the team such as who is the teams number one scorer, do they have enough to make it out of the group stage and have they gone to old or too young?

Boomers History: Joe Ingles, Lauren Jackson and Patty Mills Tie Andrew Gaze With 5 Olympic Campaigns

The Boomers kick off their Olympic campaign against World Number One, Spain on Saturday the 27th of July (7pm AEST). They then take on Canada on Tuesday the 30th of July (9:30pm AEST) and then wrap it up with a match up against Greece on Friday the 2nd of August (9:30pm AEST).

The Boomers will have a tough time in by far the toughest Group in the Olympics so far, will they make it out or will it be bye to the Boomers and most likely bye to Patty Mills, Joe Ingles and Matthew Dellavedova. It will truly be the end of an era and make for some very interesting viewing.