The Boomers led by 15 points midway through the second quarter with Chris Goulding red hot and some swarming defence giving the lacklustre Americans fits.<\/p>\n
OLYMPICS BLOG: UPDATES, LATEST NEWS<\/strong><\/em><\/a> |<\/strong><\/em> TOKYO GAMES EVENT CENTRE: SCHEDULE, RESULTS, MEDAL TALLY<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n But Australia's lead was cut to three by halftime and USA continued their epic comeback after the break.<\/p>\n Behind Brooklyn Nets superstar Kevin Durant (23 points) the Americans won the third quarter 32-10 (as part of a 48-14 stretch) to completely break the back of the Boomers.<\/p>\n NBA champion Jrue Holiday made Patty Mills' life a misery (5\/14 FG shooting) as Boomers legends Andrew Gaze and Andrew Bogut questioned why a timeout wasn't called by coach Brian Goorjian amid a 17-0 USA run.<\/p>\n Australia – who has never won a men's basketball medal at the Olympics – will now play for bronze on Saturday against the loser of tonight's France vs Slovenia semi-final.<\/p>\n "We came out the right way but we had a small patch in the second half where we kind of lost it a little bit," Boomers centre Jock Landale said.<\/p>\n "We've got to go back, review tape – we still have a chance for a medal so that's where our heads are at.<\/p>\n "We've got to move on to the next game as quickly as possible and see if we can make history."<\/p>\n Landale has just landed his first NBA contract with the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> – who are coached by USA mentor Gregg Popovich.<\/p>\n "I'm not really thinking about that right now," Landale said.<\/p>\n "I'm pretty bummed with this. We had a good opportunity there in the first half, but we let it slip.<\/p>\n "They're a helluva team, it's going to be tough to get a medal and good luck to them."<\/p>\n Mills was Australia's leading scorer with 15 while Dante Exum had 14 off the bench.<\/p>\n Durant was helped out by Devin Booker (20 points) and Holiday's all-round excellence (11 points, eight rebounds, eight assists). <\/p>\n "Everything fell in line for us in that second half and that's who we are," Durant said.<\/p>\n "They hit us with a nice punch. We knew that team was going to get us down early and see how we'd respond."<\/p>\n Here's how basketball Twitter reacted:<\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/wwos\/status\/1423161925177946113?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/WorldWideWob\/status\/1423157200550256644?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/BillSimmons\/status\/1423161224238288900?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/phillutton78\/status\/1423155438401376257?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/OlgunUluc\/status\/1423153294495547397?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/StephenCurry30\/status\/1423155438569152512?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/ringernba\/status\/1423156258366922754?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThompsonScribe\/status\/1423154430120132609?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/rodger\/status\/1423156341594595329?s=20<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/BenGolliver\/status\/1423170667445297156?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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