Australian coach Andrej Lemanis admits he's racing the clock to have the Boomers at their best for the basketball World Cup, starting in just over a week.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Boomers fancy their chances of winning a first-ever medal at world or Olympic level in China, although they were given a reality check of how tough that will be with a 102-86 loss to the United States in Melbourne on Thursday night.
The Australians were only a point down at halftime against Team USA, only for the visitors to go on a 13-0 run during the third quarter and take an unassailable lead.
Among the positives out of the Marvel Stadium match was the hot hand of Melbourne United's Chris Goulding, who matched it with the NBA stars to contribute 19 points.
Patty Mills also finished with 19 points while big man Andrew Bogut had six points, five assists and four rebounds in his 20 minutes.
Lemanis said limited preparation meant the Boomers were under the pump heading into their opening World Cup clash with Canada on September 1.
The Australians have had just two games against Canada in Perth and two against the US, with the second in Melbourne on Saturday, while they will also have another warm-up match in China.
"We're certainly not where we'd like to be in terms of the rhythm," Lemanis said.
"We've played three games which is way behind what we'd normally play in a lead-up period like this and this was the first time we had everyone available to play.
"This was the first time we could start to get into our rotations and see how all that looks so again, not where you'd like it to be but it is what it is and we've got good learning from this game and a good opportunity to come out on Saturday and continue to improve.
"There's time to get this where it needs to be."
While the Australians' physical defence put some dents in the US early, it fell away in the second half, allowing the likes of NBA All-Star Kemba Walker to shine with a game-high 23 points.
The Australians felt poor offence put pressure on their defence, leading to rebounds and heavy scoring on transition by the athletic Americans.
"The first place where we want to hang our hat is defensively, and there were periods in that game where we weren't where we wanted to be at the defensive end," Lemanis said.
"That third quarter, a bite went out of our defence a little bit."
He said they were still "finding their way" in how to best use their bench.
"(Bogut) is still a pretty significant and influential part of our offence with his reads and passing and smarts so it's about who we are getting looks for and shots for and how that opens up over the course of the game," said Lemanis.
"We need to ensure that we get a good mix of inside and outside but when we go inside it's not that those guys are going to shoot it all the time, it's the ability to collapse defence and create scoring opportunities with movement off the ball as well."
Australian Associated Press
