Bogut, Barnes, Brussino all get burn in Olympics semis

Well, if there's one thing Mavs fans have learned through these Olympics, it's that Andrew Bogut was a hugely quality pickup for Dallas this offseason. Throughout these Olympics, Bogut has gifted us with quality performances despite posting less than eye-popping stats. What's been most impressive has been how well-rounded his game has been. He's doing just about everything for Australia--one game he'll have double digit points, the next he'll post a bunch of rebounds. Tonight, it was rebounds AND assists.

Bogut had 6 points, 6 assists, and 7 rebounds tonight, while continuing his general trend of being the glue that holds this upstart Boomer squad together. He and Australia may very well get another shot at the US in the gold medal game, assuming the US can handle Spain first. And after that, he's all about that Maverick life.

Later in the day, a struggling Team USA took on Argentina. In case you forgot, there are actually three Mavs in these Olympics, and today we got our first look at lanky young Argentinian Nicholas Brussino. (Unless you've been following Argentina this entire time, of course.) He came into the game before Barnes did, in fact. Unfortunately, he wasn't really allowed to do much. For most of his 4th quarter minutes, he got to stand around in the corners and get ignored by his teammates. However, he did have one nifty play. Literally the first time he was given the ball on offense, he drove into the paint and drew a foul. Then hit both free throws. His only other notable play was a badly missed layup a couple of minutes later.

Harrison Barnes came into the game not long after Brussino, and for a while the two were guarding each other. Barnes didn't look great. There were a couple of times where he tried to dribble the ball and make a play, and never once did he look in control of his dribble. Later he threw up a pretty dumb contested three in the corner for no understandable reason. On the other hand, he did do something he failed to do in the Finals, make a wide (and I mean WIDE) open three.

Ultimately, there wasn't really anything to take from either Barnes or Brussino's performances. It remains to be seen if Barnes gets any more burn these Olympics.