Australia has copped a shock loss in its FIBA World Cup build-up, falling to world No.13 Brazil 86-90 on Wednesday evening in Melbourne.
While the Boomers dominated 17th-ranked Venezuela in their opening warm-up match 97-41, they struggled early and often against their fellow South American side.
Brazil led comfortably at the first break and held a 43-41 edge at halftime as the Boomers steadied, but never took a dominant lead, allowing the visitors to fight back and regain the lead midway through the fourth quarter.
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Helped by some incredible accuracy from three-point range, Brazil held on from there, even after Joe Ingles made a trio of free throws to cut the margin back to two with half a minute to play.
Australia in-bounded with 20 seconds left but took almost half of that time to throw up a desperate Josh Giddey three which easily missed.
“This is really good and testing for them – a good test for what’s ahead,” Aussie basketball great Andrew Gaze said on commentary.
“They are having all sorts of problems defending the on-ball screen.”
Coach Brian Goorjan must still make one more cut from the 13-man squad with Xavier Cooks and Jack White viewed as the men on the bubble.
The Boomers will face South Sudan in Melbourne on Thursday night before finishing their tune-ups against France and Georgia.
As for the World Cup action itself, the Boomers are part of Group E and will play Finland in their first official game to kick off the tournament.
That game is scheduled for 6pm AEST on Friday, August 25. Australia is also scheduled to face Germany (6.30pm, August 27) and Japan (9.10pm, August 29) to round out the group stage.
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CURRENT BOOMERS SQUAD
Xavier Cooks, Dyson Daniels, Dante Exum, Josh Giddey, Chris Goulding, Josh Green, Joe Ingles, Nick Kay, Jock Landale (*injured), Patty Mills, Duop Reath, Matisse Thybulle, Jack White
FULL FIBA WORLD CUP WARM-UP SCHEDULE (Times AEST)
Australia def Venezuela 97-41
Brazil def Australia 90-86
Australia vs South Sudan (Thursday, August 17 @ 7.45pm)
Australia vs France (Sunday, August 20 @ 2pm)
Australia vs Georgia (Tuesday, August 22 @ TBD)
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