Chris Goulding says the Boomers must shed what's left of their guilty conscience for what still looms as a historic basketball moment on Sunday.
Australia were beaten in double overtime by Spain in Friday's semi-final, a gutting loss that means their wait for a maiden international medal continues.
Chances in regular time and overtime went begging, with 22 turnovers and a number of misses likely to haunt Andrej Lemanis's men in a game that also featured a handful of dubious calls down the stretch.
Andrew Bogut launched a post-match tirade as he walked to the dressing room, assistant Luc Longley described the loss as a "stab through the heart" and Goulding admitted the aftermath was "horrible".
Bogut appears free to play despite his foul-mouthed FIBA spray, with the governing body yet to confirm to AAP on Sunday morning if he is under investigation for his outburst.
There were no injury concerns despite the exhausting nature of the semi-final, with Matthew Dellavedova expected to overcome the serious bout of cramps that stopped him late in the gutting loss to Spain.
"Of course," bench spark Goulding said when asked if they blamed themselves for the loss.
"You have to look at yourself and realise what we could've done better.
"It's a tough one, 'cause individually everything thinks they've done something wrong which cost the game, but that's not how basketball works.
"If we were to do it all again you'd have the ball in the same guys' hands, run the same plays - we'd just like to execute things better."
They'll get a chance to do that against a French side they beat 100-98 in Nanjing on Monday.
It'll be an emotionally peculiar situation for the Boomers, who can still leave China with the team's first international medal.
"We came really close to putting ourselves in a position to play for a gold medal and we didn't get there," Goulding said.
"That's what the realisation has to be, that there's a prize at the end of this."
Waiting will be French star Rudy Gobert, who's still smarting after being silenced by Aron Baynes and NBA teammate Joe Ingles in his side's second-round loss.
"I just lost to Australia a few days ago and it really hurt," he said after France beat the United States in the quarter-finals.
"I love Joe (Ingles), but I wanted to slap him. Those experiences will just make us better."
Goulding anticipates some cat and mouse in what he likened to a mini-series.
"They'll make adjustments, we'll have to make adjustments," he said.
"But I don't think we played as well as we could've last game and we came away with a win."
Australian Associated Press
