Australia and Spain will do battle at the Olympics for the first time since the Rio 2016 bronze medal match when the Boomers were agonisingly beaten in the final seconds.
Taking place more than 200km north of Paris in Lille, at Pierre Mauroy Stadium, the Boomers come into the match after winning five of their six matches in the past month against some of the world’s best teams.
The next instalment of the rivalry includes Joe Ingles, Patty Mills and Matthew Dellavedova from the 2016 Olympic Team that went down to Spain in the bronze medal game.
“That is a really cool rivalry,” Boomers centre Jock Landale said. “For us there’s a little something extra going into that game.”
The last time these two teams met was in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Patty scored a game-high 34 points in a 95-88 loss.
Spain, which has a long history of international success, represents an intriguing challenge.
They come into the tournament as the world’s number two-ranked team and the nation with the most men’s Olympic basketball medals (three silver and one bronze) behind the USA.
They qualified for the Olympic tournament with an 86-78 win over the Bahamas in Spain, where they rolled out a starting lineup of Lorenzo Brown, Xabi Lopez-Arostegui, Santi Aldama, Willy Hernangomez and Sergio Llull.
Tip off will be at 7pm AEST Saturday 27 July. Watch live and free on 9Now.
