First off the block tonight will be inaugural Ballarat Miners' head coach Brian Goorjian and former player Nathan Sobey trying to lift the Boomers to their first ever Olympic medal from 9pm AEST.

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The highest the men's side have finished is fourth, which has happened on four occasions (1988, 1996, 2000 and 2016), while the Opals have won three silver medals and two bronze since 1996.

The Boomers will attempt to go one better tonight by beating Slovenia for a bronze medal.

It will be no easy feat, with Slovenia led by NBA superstar Luka Doncic.

The 22-year-old helped Slovenia to three wins in the preliminary round and a 24-point quarter-final win over Germany.

It fell in a semi-final to France in heartbreaking fashion, one point separating the two teams.

Doncic has averaged 24.2 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists throughout the Games and is the biggest block in the way of the Boomers claiming a bronze medal.

Stopping him completely has seemed impossible during his NBA career and these Games, however, if the Boomers can quell his influence slightly, it will go a long way to a victory.

The Boomers have a range of options to throw at the star, Matisse Thybulle being the lead candidate, who has led the way on the defensive end throughout the Games.

Joe Ingles could find himself guarding Doncic at different stages as could Nic Kay, who took on the Kevin Durant defensive assignment against the United States for parts of the game.

Patty Mills remains the Boomers most dangerous threat on the offensive end and will provide some headaches for Slovenia.

He has averaged 19.6 points, nine rebounds and 5.8 assists per game while shooting 43.90 per cent from the three-point line.

A poor second-half was all that separated the Boomers and United States in a semi-final.

Considering their good form in the preliminary round and dominant 38-point win over Argentina in a quarter-final, they should take a lot of confidence into the bronze medal match.

Sobey has been in better form the last three games after a slow start in the opening two, averaging 5.7 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists.

FORMER Ballarat Clarendon College student Stewart McSweyn will take to the track midway through the Boomers' contest in the men's 1500m final.

Kicking off at 9:40pm AEST, McSweyn will battle 11 strong runners for glory and stands as good a chance as any to win a gold medal.

The former Eureka Athletic Club member set a blistering pace in the second semi-final, eventually finishing fifth with a time of 3:32.54, which would have won the first semi-final by nearly a second.

His ability to set the pace for majority of the race and then hold off some fast finishers on the back straight bodes well for the 26-year-old, who admitted post-race that he may run a more conservative race in the final as times and qualifying are not in the back of the athletes' minds.

World number one Timothy Cheruiyot and number two Jakob Ingebrigtsen are the two runners ranked higher than McSweyn (fifth) in the final.

They both come into the race in good touch, coming third and second in their respective semi-finals.

Fellow Australian Oliver Hoare will join McSweyn in the final.

If either of the Australians are able to claim a medal, it will be the first time an Australian has done so in the 1500m event since Herb Elliot won gold in Rome in 1960.

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