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Well we finally got what we wanted. An Olympic basketball game featuring both of the Golden State Warriors turned Dallas Mavericks. Harrison Barnes vs. Andrew Bogut. I mean, honestly, when was the last time (if ever) the Mavs had two players in an Olympic game?
Unfortunately, that's not exactly what we got. Which is to say that Coach K DNP-CDed Harrison Barnes. That's right--no Barnes at all in this game. Needless to say, that's disappointing from a Mavs standpoint. But Barnes is the 15th man on this roster, and this was the first competitive game Team USA has faced these Olympics. So it makes sense that Coach K shortened his rotations a bit and made sure the US didn't get surrender an embarrassing upset to an admittedly feisty Australia squad.
Speaking of Australia, Bogut had a solid, if not statistically impressive, performance in 26 minutes. He scored 15 points on 78% shooting, which is pretty damn awesome. I'm a little worried that he only had 1 rebound, but hey, I guess it's just one game. More worryingly, Bogut left the game at one point with an apparent leg issue. Given his injury history, I'm sure a lot of Mavs fans immediately began freaking out. Fortunately, whatever the issue was must have been minor, because Barnes came back into the game shortly after leaving it.
The real takeaway here is that Andrew Bogut is exactly the kind of leader you want in the locker room. Heading into the game, Bogut insisted that his teammates not get star-struck by Team USA, and throughout the game, Bogut looked the part of leader, both physically and emotionally. He was active in all aspects of the game (except rebounding, oddly), and I'm sure his activity played a part in the fight Australia gave the US. And he is already doing the little things that will make the Mavs faithful love him--namely hitting a beautiful hook shot over DeAndre Jordan and later getting in a nice hard foul on him.
We may not see much more of Harrison Barnes in these Olympics, but these games have confirmed my initial excitement about the Bogut trade. I am so pumped to have Bogut on the Mavs.