![Narrow loss does not satisfy Boomers: Cameron Bairstow, Aron Baynes, Brock Motum and Matthew Dellavedova after Australia ...](/web/20160814152946im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/q/2/i/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqq09m.png/1470884770619.jpg)
You look kind of familiar to Kevin Durant, who is trying to work out where he has seen you before, and you remind him: way down the end of the San Antonio bench on an Oklahoma away stand these last few years. Aron Baynes, Patty Mills; that's right.
And Draymond Green is trying to work out where he last saw YOU, and you jog his memory: we play together at Golden State, and were in the last two NBA title playoffs, with that Curry bloke. Andrew Bogut. OK.
![Defensive presence: Australia's Andrew Bogut tries to block a shot by his former Golden State teammate, United States ...](/web/20160814152946im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/q/2/f/n/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqq09m.png/1470884770619.jpg)
And Kyrie Irving is sure he knows YOU, and you tell him: we were together at the Cavs, we won the championship together, two months ago, us and LeBron, remember? And actually we're from the same place. Yeah, I'm THAT Matty Dellavedova.
Actually, it wasn't the least like that, not at all. Since the shemozzle in Athens 12 years ago, when an especially arrogant iteration of Team USA lost to Puerto Rico, and trailed Australia in the fourth quarter, and Tim Duncan couldn't make a shot from one foot and a young punk called LeBron James put up an air ball, and then they lost to Lithuania and Argentina and eventually had to settle sulkily for a bronze (what is that colour?), the US has been scrupulous about respect, its substance and its show.
Besides, this team is not so dreamy as some others that have followed from the shadow cast by the 1992 Dream Team legends. Team USA are missing James and Steph Curry for beginners, and international competition has deepened and broadened, and the NBA has played a part in that by throwing its net more widely - there are 47 NBA players here, including six Australians, with more coming through, and Melbourne is home to more NBA No.1 draft picks than Cleveland ever was, didn't you know? - and so there is just a bit more humility about the US all round. They even have come come to think of being on an Olympic team is cool - all those dorms, all those buses, it's just like college.
OK, so the US have only ever lost five games at the Olympics, and haven't lost any game for 10 years, and that was probably because of a clerical error, and had won their first two games in this tournament by a total of 100 points, and it still seems the reality of Olympic basketball is that it is compromised by including an American team, but would be even more compromised if it did not.
Let's face it, crowds fill the stadiums to see them, and on Wednesday night probably didn't much care to begin whether they were playing Australia, Austria or the Washington Generals; they would patronise them anyway.
As it turns out, all this NBA familiarity has bred among the Australians not contempt, but a conviction that they can win one of those fancy throwaway bronze medals, or better, because it would be a first for them, and they have nursed that conviction through an impromptu training camp in San Diego in the NBA All-Star break, and in another post-season gathering at Uluru. They cherished it even as their fulcrum, Bogut, did his knee and then willed himself to make a miraculous recovery.
![Scoring spree: Boomers guard Patty Mills tries to get past American rival Kyrie Irving.](/web/20160814152946im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/q/2/l/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqq09m.png/1470899975489.jpg)
They reinforced it throughout resounding victories against higher-ranked opponents France and Serbia in their first two games. Heck, they even convinced themselves that on a night when everything fell just right, they could beat the US. Throughout all those years of enculturation in the NBA, they had become not just peers, but something very near to equals, or so, fervently, they believed.
But the last thing Australia needed or wanted from the Americans was respect. Apathy, contempt, taking it easy: all would have been played into their hands. But respect meant the US were ever on vigilant guard as the Boomers came at them with their patent mix of physical and slick, slick basketball, and the crowd was so captivated by these - how do you say it? Boom-ers? like kangaroos? - that they booed heartily when a tough call went against them, and against all that was written in the stars and the press and the reports of American coach Mike Krzyzewksi's pre-match briefing, it was game on.
![In the paint: US centre DeMarcus Cousins and Boomers duo Andrew Bogut and Aron Baynes go up for a rebound.](/web/20160814152946im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/q/2/f/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gqq09m.png/1470884770619.jpg)
Australia did nearly all they could. Dellavedova created points, Mills scored them, Bogut pulled a Titanic shift at centre. The Boomers outshot the Americans, and made more points inside the paint, and more on the fast break, and led by as many as eight and still were in front midway through the last quarter, and still came up agonisingly short (the scorecard, cluttered by sundries at the end, lies).
Why, everyone had a slightly different answer to. It could have been because of two or three Team USA surges, in the first quarter, immediately after half-time and right at the end; Australia could not manage more than one such burst. It could have been because they couldn't shut down Anthony, whether inside or out.
It could have been because of the US's dominance of offensive rebounds, bringing them 23 second-chance points. And turnovers, costing another 23. Australian coach Andrej Lemanis noted these, ruefully. It could have been because of a little sloppiness at the wrong times - veteran forward David Andersen thought so. It could have been that after three-and-a-half switched-on quarters, they lapsed mentally for a moment; this was Mills' take.
It could have been because of a couple of dead simple pick and roll plays at the death; this irked Dellavedova.
It was all of these things, but none in particular. It was just that after, all, this was Team USA, who win.
So the Boomers could be proud of themselves. Be damned, said Bogut. Be bloody well damned proud.
"Australian media will say, you guys did great," he said. "No we didn't, we lost. We're not going to take moral victories. They're the best team in the world, we battled them and we thought we should have been in a position to grind out even a closer game. We're disappointed. That's the attitude of this group of guys. In the past, you get beaten by 10 or 15 and everyone gets a little birthday cake. Best day ever. We have a different mindset this Olympics."
You've been told.
![Ambitious: Boomers centre Andrew Bogut.](http://web.archive.org./web/20160814152946im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/q/3/j/f/image.imgtype.articleLeadwide.620x349.png/1470884115316.png)
Ambitious: Boomers centre Andrew Bogut. Photo: AP
In times past, this night might have finished with Durant saying to Baynes and Mills that he was surprised he hadn't me them before, and them saying he had, and with Green saying to Bogut that he should come and play with him at the Warriors, and Bogut saying he already has, and Irving saying to Dellavedova that he was exactly the sort of player that could help the Cavs to a championship, and Delly saying he just did.
It's not like that any more because everyone knows who the Australians are now, and the Australians know Team USA well enough to have no fears, and although the Americans are still unbeatable, they are less so than they used to be, and although Boomers still haven't beaten them, they are getting close enough to smell it, and with the right fall of results still could meet again in this tournament, in the final, and no pardons will be begged and no introductions will be necessary.
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