Basketball - Olympics: Day 7 (Photo : Getty Images)
The ongoing Rio 2016 Olympics rivalry between Australia and China, triggered by Australian swimmer Mack Horton calling his opponent Sun Yang a drug cheat, further “escalated” and branched out in other sports in the summer games.
Even without Andrew Bogut, Australia beat China 93-68 in the men’s basketball on Saturday to enter the quarterfinals. The victory over China came two days after the Boomers almost beat the U.S. team and was leading at halftime, reported IBT-Au.
The U.S. team has one more fight against Venezuela on Sunday. With the Boomers’ win against China, it assures Australia of at least a second-place finish in Group A of men’s basketball.
Bogut did not join the game against China but instead rested after three outstanding plays against France, Serbia and the U.S. He also has just recovered from a knee injury.
Because of Bogut’s rest, Boomers Cameron Bairstow and Brock Motum has more playing time, but Yi Jianlian, the Chinese forward, benefitted the most from Bogut’s absence. Yi, who stands 213cm, scored a game-high of 20 points, while Boomer Aron Baynes, known as the man mountain, had at times difficulty in containing the former NBA player.
But despite Yi’s power, among the 12 teams, China has the worst record in terms of points, rebounds and assists per game and fouls.
