If I could be xenophobic for a minute...
Screw FIBA.
Their rules are dumb. You shouldn't be allowed to touch the ball while it's on the rim. That's goaltending, period. I go back to a shot in the 2nd quarter where Draymond would have had a three trickle in but an Aussie guy whacked it off the rim. Completely legal, completely stupid.
Even stupider: The three referees today were from Germany, Greece and Spain. I get that this is done to prevent corruption like the 1972 outright rogering our guys took vs. USSR. I get that. I'm sure they all speak the language of basketball, but they can't be as effective at communicating with the players, coaches and each other as a crew of referees ought to be.
The end result today was a very unevenly officiated game that reminded me of a random Tuesday night in the SEC West. Lots of stuff got missed on both sides. They called everything on the bigs, nothing on anybody else.
As for the game...really fun stuff. Gotta trust in Carmelo Anthony. He's the old man on the team and the greatest international basketball player of all time. If he played in Europe, he'd have a Pistol Pete season. Need to get Durant going again, need for guys to get more confidence in their jumpers, specifically Durant, need to have it so where we don't have to play Lowry so much.
Klay Thompson looks tired more than anything. But I thought he did a good job guarding Patty Mills down the stretch.
The Aussies were good and tough and the stuff they ran was outstanding. Wouldn't have minded seeing a little zone, seeing as how they were able to backdoor the crap out of us on a few switches. By far the 2nd best team I've seen and I'll be shocked if that doesn't end up being the gold medal game. I don't even know who else can hang. Maybe Lithuania? We'll need the bigs in that game for sure. Don't think the ultra small lineup that put today's game away will be as effective against Lithuania.