The absence of Aron Baynes was conspicuous but not enough to interrupt the Boomers perfect start to their Tokyo campaign that continued with an 89-76 win over Germany on Saturday night.
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With Baynes ruled out for the remainder of the tournament with a neck injury in the lead-up, Nick Kay got the nod to start what became an absorbing stylistic match-up.
He finished with 16 points and four assists, but it was Patty Mills who led the way, shrugging off a two of nine start from the field to finish with 24 points and six assists.
Jock Landale was again huge, grabbing 18 points, though Baynes' absence was telling in the rebound column, with Germany grabbing 45 boards to the Boomers' 28.
They couldn't capitalise and simply had no answers to the Aussies in transition, Brian Goorjian's team grabbing 13 steals and forcing 18 turnovers in the win.
""As far as game style - it's the extra pass on offence and it's the five guys playing together and rotating defensively. The first game we played against Nigeria - they may be the toughest team we've played defensively - but we had 24 turnovers.
"Tonight, we played a very physical, well-coached team and had six turnovers. The key for us tonight again was the defensive end of the floor, the extra pass, getting the ball from side-to-side then putting the ball in the right guy's hand.
"Long way to go for us but nice progression from one game to two games to tonight the third game."
It was a game of runs early, Australia posting the first five points, conceding the next nine and finding themselves down by seven as quarter-time closed in before a huge three from Chris Goulding cut the margin back to four at the first break.
The Boomer re-took the lead in the second on a three from Mills on a 13-5 run, his third field goal from his first 10 attempts, to go ahead 33-31 and force Germany into a timeout.
Landale had 11 through the first half, while Kay had nine as the Boomers turned a seven-point deficit midway through the first term into a four-point lead at half-time.
The lead ballooned to 10 on a four-point play from Mills early in the third, though Germany took most of the running from there to level up in the space of three minutes.
Consecutive steals and transition slams from Mattise Thybulle and Duop Reath pushed the lead back out to four before Thybulle picked the German pockets again for an easy fast-break bucket on three-quarter-time for a seven-point cushion.
Joe Ingles dropped his first points from deep to start the fourth and followed up with another for a seven-point buffer, with the Boomers never troubled from there.
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