2023-08-20 13:10:10
The French basketball team lost on the wire against Australia (78-74), this Sunday in Tokyo, for its seventh and last preparation match before the World Cup in Asia (August 25-September 10) . This is his only setback in these friendly matches.
The Blues raced in the lead throughout the game before being overtaken by the “Boomers” 1 minute 30 from the end of the match. The French had however started on foot thanks to Evan Fournier, on fire and author of 12 points in the first quarter, won 27-19 by his team.
“It’s a last preparation match, you want to approach it with a little more intensity and focus, I tried to be aggressive, that’s all”, declared Fournier at the end. of the encounter. “You can’t say you’re satisfied when you lose a game. But I think we are progressing, offensively we are still better (…). We were in a position where we could win. »
“We showed that we were solid, we never broke even in difficulty, with special circumstances”, added coach Vincent Collet, alluding to his “voluntary” underemployment of Nicolas Batum, who only played 13 minutes on Sunday after being rested in Thursday’s game against Japan.
“The defeat is explained by poor management of the rise in aggressiveness” of the Australians from the third quarter, according to the coach. “If we had simply continued as in the first half to have better ball management, we would have won without worry”.
The French maintained their lead at half-time (39-31). But the Australians, third world nation in the Fiba ranking, indeed came back in force in the third quarter, thanks in particular to Josh Giddey, the leader of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Lessort returns to the group
The Blues also multiplied the balls lost during this period: 10, against only 2 for the Australians. The suspense was still total at the end of the third quarter (58-56 for France). The two sides went blow for blow at the end of the match but it was therefore the Australians who went ahead and were no longer caught.
The France team will fly next week to Jakarta, where it will start the World Cup by facing Canada on Friday, then Latvia (August 27) and Lebanon (August 29).
Mathias Lessort, who had missed the preparation matches due to an ankle injury, received a medical green light and will be able to join the group on Tuesday in Indonesia. Thanks to its “speed” and its “explosiveness”, the new interior of Panathinaikos will be “an additional asset” for the Blues, welcomed Sunday Vincent Collet.
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