Wembanyama provided the spark that France needed to get back into the Olympic Final
In front of a raucous home crowd, the French Men’s National Basketball team secured an Olympic medal with a 73-69 victory over Germany. France earned their second consecutive trip to the Olympic Final and will become the first host nation to medal in Basketball since the USA in the 1992 Atlanta games.
What Happened
Germany got out to an early 10-point lead before France really got into the game. They held the lead for most of the first half until a burst of amazing plays by Victor Wembanyama. A thunderous dunk over Daniel Theis of the New Orleans Pelicans punctuated the sequence. France and Germany ended up tied at 33 at halftime.
The game stayed within one possession for the entire third quarter until Evan Fournier hit a three to put France up 6 with 1:41 left, which was how the quarter ended. The final frame began with a French run to go up by 10 and a German timeout to figure out how to put the ball in the basket. They extended their lead to 13 a little later.
With three minutes left, Germany finally seemed to make some headway into France’s lead and got within 6 points. After a few stalemate minutes, Franz Wagner hit a massive three to get within two points with 38.6 left in the game. On the next trip down, Wagner secured a rebound but tripped out of bounds as he tried to get up the court. France held on through the free throw battle late to win the game by 4.
Notes
- Victor Wembanyama made a massive impact on this game. He wasn’t necessarily the driving force for France in this game. He finished with 11 points on 4-of-17 shooting (24%). But his plays seemed to provide the biggest sparks and turned into runs that separated France in the second half. His teammates kept encouraging him to shoot and he repayed them with momentum-shifting plays.
- Despite Wemby’s highlights, the French were still led by veterans like Guerschon Yabusele and Isaia Cordinier. Yabusele had some spectacular attacks at the basket en route to 17 points. The “Dancing Bear” took over the early second half and earned some MVP chants at the free-throw line. Cordinier is just a cool player who finds a way to make an impact. He finished with 16 points.
- Both teams were sloppy in this game. Germany had 15 turnovers and France almost matched them with 13. The teams also struggled from three. France was just 6/27 (22%) from deep and Germany wasn’t much better at 10/34 (29%).
- Rudy Gobert only played 5 minutes in this game as France elected to go small to match Germany’s wing-heavy group. He looked like guy who got benched in the Olympics on the bench, but come in for rebounding purposes late.
- Germany’s offense just felt off for most of the game. Maybe because they planned for Gobert and struggled to adjust when he sat. Dennis Schroder had a normal FIBA outing by his standards. He put up 18 points and 4 assists.
- The French crowd was just awesome throughout. They’ve been excellent and boisterous all Olympics, but shone in this game especially. The crowd during the Final should be even better, especially if the crowd feels like underdogs against the USA.
- Bilal Couilably was a DNP, but seemed to be having fun on the bench.