Huge disappointment for the French men’s basketball team. Beaten by Latvia (88-86), Sunday August 27 in Jakarta, the Olympic vice-champions are eliminated from the World Cup in the first round, when they presented themselves as candidates for the title.
After the debacle suffered in the opening against Canada (95-65), Vincent Collet’s men knew the imperative victory under penalty of seeing their tournament end prematurely. With this second defeat in a row, they can no longer join Canada and the Latvians (two wins each) in one of the first two places in Group H.
The French can harbor regrets, who led by 12 points at the start of the last quarter (74-62). They saw the Latvians go ahead for the first time in the match with thirty-seven seconds remaining (87-86), before Sylvain Francisco missed the winning shot at the siren by three points.
“We broke mentally, we broke physically”
The leader was on the ground because France, which appeared on the three current international podiums (3rd in the 2019 World Cup, finalist in the 2021 Olympics and Euro 2022), was deprived of the holder of the post Nando De Colo. The Asvel player, one of the executives of the Blues in this World Cup – which France also approached with almost all its vital forces – joined the locker room five minutes from the end after a second unsportsmanlike foul, synonymous with disqualification. He had to leave his partners for a gesture of humor when he benefited from a foul.
“Our team is beautiful and being beautiful is good, but going on the field and getting your hands dirty is better,” reacted center Rudy Gobert. “Hot, it’s a big disappointment. We cracked mentally, we cracked physically, we weren’t together, “said Nicolas Batum at the microphone of BeIN at the end of the meeting, visibly very moved for his last World Cup.
Vincent Collet’s men also lost far too many balls (20) against a Latvian selection deprived of its star Kristaps Porzingis and who was playing in the first World Cup in its history. Under the cheers of her large colony of supporters, she qualified for the second round.
