Unfortunately for the Boomers it's a metaphor in play again after a gut-wrenching 95-88 double overtime semi-final World Cup loss to Spain in China on Friday.

Up by as many as 11, Australia committed 22 turnovers and still had ample chances to seal it in regulation and the first overtime, missing late shots that would've put them ahead.

Instead they'll play France for bronze in Beijing on Sunday.

It will be their fifth such game, the four previous coming in Olympics tilts and all finishing in Boomers losses.

Former Boomers centre-turned assistant coach Luc Longley will have missed only one of those third-place games, in Atlanta 1996 through injury.

"The trick is cauterizing the wound somehow, without alcohol," he said.

"That's usually how I cauterized my wounds, but that's not the way to do it."

Longley was colourful in his post-game comments, admitting that he felt Spain were "kissed on the d**k by the basketball gods".

Their modern rivals had come from behind to beat Australia in the bronze medal game of the 2016 Olympics, where they were also awarded a controversial foul in the dying seconds that put them ahead.

Longley and fellow former teammate Mark Bradtke have ridden every high and low of the Boomers' campaign on the support staff, while nervous teammate Andrew Gaze watched Friday's semi-final helplessly from the press box.

"We've got to find an altar somewhere and burn a sacrifice to the basketball gods, 'cause they're not kissing us on the d**k yet," Longley said.

"I feel stabbed in the heart by that ... in Rio I also feel like we deserved to win that ... I don't know what we've got to do."

Longley admitted they "cost themselves the game in a number of ways" and would be furious for a number of reasons, but that they needed to quickly refocus.

"My advice to the guys is to take care of their bodies second, take care of their minds first," he said.

"Do what they've got to do to express all their frustrations without it costing them physically.

"We've got a bronze medal game coming up - I know it's a consolation prize, but I'd sure like one."

Australian Associated Press