Goorjian: 'Japanese basketball on rise'

Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian was full of praise for the Japanese basketball landscape, following Australia’s victory over the World Cup host nation last night.

Australia locked horns with Japan in Okinawa, where a stingy defensive first half performance laid the foundation for a hard-fought win for Australia.

Reigning NBL MVP Xavier Cooks starred for the Boomers with 24 points and 16 rebounds, while Duop Reath registered eight points and three blocks in just 13 minutes of action.

But the Boomers didn't have it all their own way. 

Japan was led by naturalised centre Josh Hawkinson’s 33 points and NBA star Yuta Watanabe’s 24 points.

“I’ve worked in this region for a long time, I’ve been with the Japanese national team two different times and I’ve been with team China, I’ve been with the Philippines,” Goorjian said post-game.

“When we were at the Olympics my favourite team to watch – the best coached team at the Olympics was the Japanese women, and he’s (Japan head coach Tom Hovasse) doing the same thing here.

“They play with passion, they play to their strengths, he’s got the country behind the team, and the domestic competition which is a parallel to Japanese success is on another level from what it used to be.

“All systems go and tremendous respect for the Japanese team and tremendous respect for Hovasse as a coach.”

Goorjian instigated a change to his side’s starting five for the first time this tournament by bringing Josh Green into the starting group, at the expense of Matisse Thybulle.

Green starred on the defensive end of the floor and helped Australia shake their concerning habit of slow starts this tournament.

He ended the game with four steals, and Goorjian says Green taking his position in the starting group gives the side better opportunity with a variety of lineups.

“We moved Matisse to the group coming off the bench and Josh, this was the original plan, but Josh missed most of our camp and all the games,” he said.

“I think he’s better on the defensive end of the 'Delly' (Matthew Dellavedova) job of picking the ball up and putting pressure on up the floor, and when we bring in the switching lineup, Matisse is long and playing with Xavier (Cooks), (Josh) Giddey and that group and he can switch.

“I thought the adjustment today really helped us. We got a lot from the group who started and the switching group went up a level.”

“Tonight was a big game for us, it was a bounce-back game we needed to have. We had an emphasis on playing hard and picking up, and I think X (Cooks) did an amazing job with second chance points and it carried to the whole team and gave us momentum,” Green added.

“It was what we needed to do and just making sure we continue to have that same energy moving forward into our next game, being aggressive and ready to go.”

Australia will next take to the floor on Friday, September 1 against the winners of Group F – which at this stage is likely to be Slovenia.