The Boomers have reverted to type at the Paris Olympics, knocked out of the men's basketball tournament with another heart-breaking loss, this time to Serbia.

Australia led by as many as 24 points in the second term of the quarterfinal, before Serbia roared back.

Inspirational Boomers captain Patty Mills forced the game to overtime when he tied the scores at 82 with a remarkable fadeaway jump shot over three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic with a second left in regulation.

But Jokic got his revenge, hitting a trademark off-balance dagger in the post to give the Serbs a 93-90 lead.

Boomers star Josh Giddey turned the ball over on the inbound pass at the other end, Bogdan Bogdanovic hit two free throws to make it 95-90, and the Boomers' were out of the Olympics before the semifinals for the first time since 2012. 

"We threw everything at them, it just wasn't our day. They played a hell of a game," Mills told Channel Nine.

The 35-year-old skipper was playing his fifth Olympics, and spoke as if it may be his last.

"We've had a blast, this journey's been fun," he told Nine.

"We've stuck together, we've stayed together as a group.

"This is the Olympic Games. These are the games you want to play. It was fun."

After three gutting fourth-place finishes (in 1996, 2000 and 2016) the Boomers secured Australian men's basketball's first Olympic medal with bronze in Tokyo three years ago.

But the showdown with Serbia had all the hallmarks of those pre-2021 years, including some brilliance from Mills, costly turnovers and, of course, a loss as heart-pounding as it was heart-breaking.

"It's heartbreaking, and it kills me that I have to wait four more years for another chance," a tearful Giddey told Nine.

"This feeling sucks."

The Boomers made a rollicking start, with guards Giddey and Mills typically influential.

Mills had 12 points in the opening frame and Giddey, after starting the game with a clumsy turnover, found his rhythm with his passing and scoring, orchestrating the offence and scoring eight points of his own.

Mills scored 16 points in a 20-0 run that put the Boomers up 39-17 early in the second term — the lead growing to 46-22 with six minutes left in the half before the Serbs woke up.

Within four minutes the lead had been cut by more than half, and was a manageable 54-42 by half-time.

The lead evaporated in the blink of an eye in the third quarter as Australian turnovers in the face of relentless defence helped Serbia go on a 19-6 run.

By the time Giddey threw his sixth turnover (the team's 15th) to end the third quarter, Serbia was leading 67-65, setting up a grandstand finish.

NBL grand final MVP Jack McVeigh delivered some crucial offence to get Australia rolling in the final quarter, including a clutch three-pointer to keep the Boomers in the game, down 76-75 in response to Vasilije Micić's own triple.

Micić pushed the lead back out to three, but Giddey tied it up from deep, only to gift three points straight back to Serbia when he fouled the red-hot Micić beyond the arc as the game entered the final three minutes of regulation.

But Micić missed a crucial free throw with just nine seconds left, setting up one more (and perhaps last) heroic moment for Mills in green and gold.

The veteran point guard had handed the keys to the offence to Giddey for much of the campaign, but took them back for much of the second half to little effect.

But, with the game on the line, he isolated Jokic and nailed a tough contested shot over the man standing 20 centimetres taller than him to give the Boomers another life; one they could not quite grasp.

"We can keep our heads high," Mills said.

"Hopefully, we made a lot of people proud."