Milwaukee Bucks forward Khris Middleton is looking forward to Thursday night's game, in which Team USA will face up against the Australian national team — anxious to see his former teammate Matthew Dellavedova, who has marked this game in his calendar for a long time.
Dellavedova, who was part of a three-team trade that saw him land back with the Cleveland Cavaliers, is a feisty defender and a fierce competitor — attributes that are emblematic of what the Boomers are all about.
“Delly was a great teammate of mine and a great friend and I know he was talking about it last year about how exciting this game would be for them and for us,” Middleton told reporters with a smile, according to ESPN's Kane Pitman. “To compete against him, he's a warrior. It's going to be a great test and it'll be great to see him and play against him.”
Besides Delly, Middleton is looking to build from a 90-81 exhibition win against the Spanish national team on Friday, looking to cut down on the mistakes made and build some imperative chemistry, which should prove key with this young roster ahead of the FIBA 2019 World Cup, which tips off at the end of the month.
“It's just another test, we know it's going to be a crazy crowd, it's going to be a great experience, we are definitely going to get tested against a great Australian team so it'll be a good game for us to learn, see where we need to get better going forward,” said Middleton.
Team USA looks to have plenty of firepower with explosive guards like Kemba Walker and Donovan Mitchell, but they will need a lot more than a scoring punch to get through some tough competition once the stakes are raised.
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