The Bratwurst – Milwaukee Bucks Blog

Andrew Bogut had a good showing against Team USA, but unfortunately for him (and fortunately for US basketball fans) Team USA was able to hold on and advance past Australia 113 to 73. The low point for the Australian team probably was the second quarter when they managed to score only 6 points to the Dream Team’s 32.

I wasn’t able to catch this game on TV due to some timing conflicts with a speaking engagement in my life, but Bogut put up a fairly strong performance according to what the stats and game recap indicate.

Andrew led the Aussies and had a game high (that he shared with Carmelo) with 20 points off of 5 for 11 shooting, including a 1-3 night from downtown. He was strong from the free throw stripe missing only two of his nine throws. He finished the game with six boards. The only weakspot was his four turnovers, which were to be expected with the pressure defense that Team USA employs.

From the game recap…

After the game Bogut conceded that the second quarter hurt Australia’s chances of making a real game of it.

“We just turned the ball over too much. They didn’t really shut us down. They forced us into turning the ball over and we didn’t really get any shots while they were able to run and get some dunks. If you play the USA like we did in that quarter, you’re going to lose,” he said.

But the center is hopeful for the team’s future.

“It’s definitely something to build upon for Beijing. We have a young team, a lot of college kids playing against NBA guys. Hopefully we can get a core group out of this bunch of players for Beijing and move on.”

It would have been nice to see a few less giveaways on Bogut’s part, but all-in-all I’m satisfied with Andrew’s performance in the tournament and look forward to seeing him returning to a Bucks jersey in a little over a month.