Boomers Make History Winning Olympic Bronze

He carried the flag for Australia at the opening ceremony in Tokyo and Patty Mills has made history by helping deliver the Boomers their first ever Olympic Games medal with a performance for the ages in a big win over Slovenia for the bronze medal.

Mills was simply a man possessed at Tokyo's Saitama Super Stadium on Saturday night to close the basketball tournament at the Olympic Games. At his fourth Olympics, he was not going to let Australia remain medalless in men's basketball.

The newly-signed Brooklyn Nets guard was at his unstoppable best cementing his legacy as one of the greatest to ever pull on the green and gold singlet. He produced 42 points and nine assists on shooting 15/31 from the field and 8/10 from the foul line as Australia beat Slovenia 107-93.

Winning a bronze medal at the Olympics is something generations of men's basketballers from Australia have been desperately searching for, and now it is a reality and everybody involved in this team deserves to be enormously proud.

It has been built towards ever since the heartbreak in Rio way back in 2016 now, there was more agony at the World Cup in 2019 with the loss in the bronze medal playoff to France, but the reality is now Australian men have won a medal at the Olympic Games.

While heartbroken to not be able to keep a hot start going on Thursday in the semi-final against the USA to miss out on playing for gold, the Boomers shook off that pain and refocused to deliver a tremendous performance against Slovenia to win bronze in Tokyo.

That doesn’t mean it was easy. After Australia opened up a 14-point lead to start the fourth term, Slovenia stormed back and were within three with six minutes to go when Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic scored.

However, Mills hit a pair of free-throws, Dante Exum hit five quick points and then Joe Ingles drained a huge three in his fourth attempt at the Olympics and the Boomers wouldn’t be denied.

It was only fitting that Philadelphia 76ers defensive maestro Matisse Thybulle threw down another slam to seal the deal as the Boomers prevailed by 14 points to claim bronze in style.

On top of the amazing 42 points from Patty Mills, Joe Ingles put up 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists as the two great mates share in the historic moment together.

Jock Landale is ready to take the NBA by storm with the reigning NBL Grand Final MVP delivering another 14 points with Dante Exum adding 12 points, Matisse Thybulle 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, Chris Goulding six points on two threes, and Nick Kay six points, five boards and four steals.

It was Mills who won the hearts of the country simply by the passion he showed and what the bronze medal meant to him at his fourth try at the Olympic Games.

"We’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time and it’s taken a lot of experiences, a lot of ups, a lot of downs for us to get over the hump," Mills said.

"It’s our culture at the end of the day, the Australian culture, our Aussie spirit, the boys being able to hang together and realise what it means to be able to represent your country, for it to come pouring out in moments like this.

"Now that we’ve made it over the hill, this is the standard now of Australian men’s basketball and we take nothing less. We say ‘gold vibes only’ is the standard and we won’t accept anything less on the court or off the court.

"I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or smile. A lot of emotions. It’s time to bring an Olympic medal back to our country Australia so I can hang it at mum and dad’s house."

For Slovenia at their first every Olympic Games, Luka Doncic put up 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists with Kiemen Prepelic adding 18 points, Mike Tobey 13 and Jaka Blazic 12.

Joe Ingles opened the bronze medal match with the first two buckets and when Jock Landale scored inside and Patty Mills hit from the outside, the Boomers were suddenly up 9-2.

Slovenia soon steadied and went on a 9-0 streak but Chris Goulding got Australia back up to end up leading narrowly 20-19 by quarter-time.

Mills stretched Australia's lead to four to start the second term but Slovenia soon got on a roll to lead by three themselves before triples for Nick Kay and Mills. 

The new Brooklyn guard went on a run of hitting 11 straight points for the Boomers, and when Landale got in on it too, the lead was out to double-figures nearing half-time.

Matisse Thybulle then ensured Australia led 53-45 by half-time on the back of two big finishes, including a huge breakaway slam on the buzzer.

The Boomers again threatened to break the game open in the third quarter on the back of a triple from Ingles and a couple more mid-range jumpers from Mills to put them up 12, but Slovenia were hanging tough.

Despite a couple of threes from Ingles heading into three quarter-time, Slovenia was still just in touch with the Boomers lead at 11.

That became 14 when Goulding drained his second three of the night, but Slovenia then made their last great run at the bronze by scoring the game's next eight points. Then following a steadying Dante Exum bucket, Slovenia hit the next five and it was a three-point ball game with six minutes on the clock.

Mills responded with a pair of free-throws, Exum hit a three and then scored again at the rim and in the blink of an eye, Australia was back up 10 and from there cruised to the 14-point win to wrap up the historic bronze medal.

TOKYO OLYMPIC GAMES BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
BRONZE MEDAL GAME

AUSTRALIAN BOOMERS 107 (Mills 42, Ingles 16, Landale 14)

SLOVENIA 93 (Doncic 22, Prepelic 18, Tobey 13) 

BOX SCORE