It's just the fourth time the Boomers have reached the semi-finals at the Olympics, ending a 16-year drought with an emphatic 90-64 victory that sets up a semi-final showdown against the winner of the Croatia-Serbia quarter-final.

But Andrew Bogut and coach Andrej Lemanis aren't afraid to dream big, reiterating their intention to cause the upset of the Olympics and win gold in the men's basketball tournament traditionally dominated by the United States.

"We've always spoken about gold, and right now we're not satisfied," Lemanis said.

"When we spoke about that as a goal of ours there were some people who scoffed in the community but we backed ourselves. For us, that's still our goal. Our goal hasn't changed."

Matthew Dellavedova (15 points), arguably the player of the tournament so far, took a back seat with a minor hip complaint as the hot hand of Patty Mills knocked down 24 points to lead Australia to a comfortable win.

Together with the Milwaukee-bound Dellavedova, the two NBA championship winners orchestrated another impressive victory for the Australians against a team that had reached five of the past six Olympics semi-finals.

"We want to win the next game, we want to go as far as we can go," Bogut said.

"The goal for us has always been the gold medal. We'll re-evaluate after that. Australia has been in this position other times and finished fourth."

Dellavedova came into the match with the most assists in the tournament (8.6 per game) as well as two double-doubles.

However, Mills' contribution has been equally significant and he now finds himself sitting in second position for points per game (21.2) at the Olympics.

"Like all his teammates, he loves playing for Australia and finds something special," Lemanis said of Mills.

"He wants to represent Australia and his heritage on the world stage with pride. The thing I appreciate the most with him - everyone sees his offence but he's really got into his defence at this tournament. He's prepared to sacrifice for the good of the team.

"We all see when he scores, but he goes through the video and he sets screens to get other people open. He's prepared to do work for others as others are prepared to do work for him. That's what makes the team hard to guard."

Australia's ability to finish second in group A means they will avoid heavy favourites USA until the gold medal match if both teams keep winning.

The Boomers took confidence from holding their own in the 10-point group stage loss to the USA, who have shown some vulnerabilities in their three-point wins over Serbia and France respectively leading into the finals.

With IOC president Thomas Bach in the house to watch the Boomers, Dellavedova kicked things off in style with unanswered back-to-back threes to start the game, while Lithuania weren't helping their cause giving away three offensive fouls in the first four minutes.

Australia took a 48-30 lead into half-time, largely courtesy of a shooting exhibition from Mills, who is also averaging the most three pointers per game in the tournament.

The Boomers extended the lead to 27 points by the start of the fourth quarter and cruised home to progress through to their first semi-final since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, going someway to ease the disappointment of the Opals' shock quarter-final exit 24 hours earlier.

Mills said he took valuable lessons out of the Boomers' last two failed Olympic campaigns.

"I think generally you understand why you play for your country and you gather more pride and passion the more you do this and find reasons why you're fortunate enough to be in this situation," Mills said.

"I think we as a group were able to touch and feel that at the start of this campaign. To understand why each of us play for Australia and why we're here. Doing that as a group has taken us to another level."

A loss in Friday's semi-final won't end the Boomers' campaign, setting up a bronze medal match to decide third and fourth positions.