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Rio de Janeiro • Having been immersed in the San Antonio Spurs' system, Boris Diaw knows the kind of basketball he likes. And it is not the stuff he witnessed from his France teammates Saturday.
Sloppy, selfish offense hurt France in an 87-66 loss to Australia as Group A preliminary play began in the Olympic tournament. "It's not our game to play one-on-one. … We've got to move the ball," Diaw said.
Traded to the Jazz in early July, Diaw took the court for the opening tip with two new NBA teammates, France center Rudy Gobert and Australian guard Joe Ingles. Diaw posted nine points and five rebounds, while showing good signs of athletic ability and savvy at age 34, although the team captain cooled off in the second half and finished with 4-of-11 shooting.
Ingles was bothered by foul trouble and finished with four points and six assists. Of the Boomers' 35 field goals, 29 came via assists. Matthew Dellavedova led the team with 10 assists.
"We have an offensive system that enables us to take advantage of whatever defense the other team is playing," said Australian coach Andrej Lemanis. "We're patient offensively and we're extremely unselfish."
In his Olympic debut, Gobert recorded five points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots in 25 minutes. Most of his defensive impact came in the first half. After that, Australia's well-executed offense found ways to pull him away from the basket and enable Andrew Bogut to catch lob passes and score easily.
"They didn't score one-on-one in the post so much," said former University of Utah player Kim Tillie, defending Gobert's work.
Gobert said he and his teammates needed to "watch our mistakes" and learn from them, as they prepare to play China on Monday. France qualified for the Olympics without Gobert, who was the only player added to the roster after that victory over Canada in Manila. Yet he said practicing for two weeks with the team was adequate preparation, after playing for France in recent summers.
Australia will meet Serbia on Monday. Four of the six teams in Group A, which also includes the USA and Venezuela, will advance to the quarterfinals after playing five preliminary games.
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