Australia’s men enjoyed an encouraging start to their Olympic basketball campaign with a 92-80 win over Spain in a feisty encounter that threatened to boil over at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille.

Led by Jock Landale with 20 points, veteran Patty Mills (19) and Josh Giddey (17), the Boomers started strongly to get one over their rivals in Group A, which also contains Canada and Greece and has been dubbed the ‘group of death’.

Giddey gave the Chicago Bulls a glimpse of what they are getting next NBA season as he also weighed in with eight rebounds and eight assists. But tempers flared in the first quarter when Josh Green and Usman Garuba exchanged words before a bit of push and shove prompted a number of Australian players to rush in.

The Boomers next meet Canada on Tuesday.

There was heartbreak in the diving pool as Maddison Keeney and Anabelle Smith narrowly missed out on a medal in the women’s 3m synchronised event, which would have been Australia’s first appearance on the podium at these Games.

The pair had won bronze in Rio and were well placed going into the final round. While eventual Chinese gold medallists of Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen were clear in first, the Australians were vying for second place with the American pair of Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon with one dive left.

However, the pair struggled to execute the forward two-and-a-half somersault, one-twist combination after Smith botched her launch, skewing off the board at a 45-degree angle. They were consoled by their coaches upon leaving the pool and ended in fifth.

“I made a mistake on the last dive and we were probably in the hot seat to win a medal,” Smith told Channel Nine. “I’m just trying to remind myself that our entire synchro career together is not defined by this moment. It’s very disappointing to miss out on the medal, but that’s life, we’re good, we’re healthy, we will move on.”

More to follow.