Dante Exum suffered an injury scare and Josh Giddey led the way with 19 points as the Australian Boomers cruised past Puetro Rico 90-75 in Saturday morning’s pre-Olympics exhibition game in Orléans (all times AEST).
Exum late in the first quarter landed awkwardly after driving to the paint, colliding with teammate Duop Reath and appearing to hurt his neck as he fell to the floor grimacing.
The guard grabbed the back of his neck and remained floored for some time as he was treated to by a trainer and surrounded by some teammates. He sat out the remainder of the game as a precaution due to a sore neck.
Exum has a gruelling injury history across his career, so whenever he hits the floor like that, it’s cause for concern, particularly a week out from the Boomers’ Paris Olympics opener.
The 29-year old played in the NBA season for the Dallas Mavericks all the way through June against the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
Giddey continued his promising form through the exhibition games with 19 points, four rebounds and five assists and just one turnover.
The new Chicago Bulls guard led five Boomers in double figures including Patty Mills (15 points, 5-of-5 from 3-point range), Jock Landale (12 points, six rebounds), Joe Ingles (11, 3-of-3 from 3-point range) and Josh Green (10 points).
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Jack McVeigh, who this week signed a two-way contract with the Houston Rockets, dropped nine points and Dyson Daniels added five points, three rebounds, five assists, two steals and a block.
Reath, who’d be out of Australia’s rotation the last three games, played back-up centre to Landale to suddenly challenge Will Magnay for the reserve role, with the lopsided victory a good chance for Brian Goorjian to go deeper into his bench.
It continued the Boomers’ promising preparation for the real stuff after challenging USA and defeating Serbia.
Australia plays its final warm-up game against host nation France and twin tower stars Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert on Monday at 5am before opening its campaign proper on July 27 against Spain.