While appearances may have been saved, the end result is not going to change. On Tuesday, August 29, the French team concluded its first round of the 2023 World Championship with a narrow 85-79 win over Lebanon in Jakarta. However, the debacle against Canada on Friday (95-65) and the surprise defeat by Latvia on Sunday (88-86) prevented them from reaching the second round. This means that Les Bleus will have to play out the competition with two matches against other eliminated teams, in order to complete the ranking table.
"It's a nightmare," admitted Les Bleus coach Vincent Collet after the match against Latvia. A year ahead of "its" Olympic Games, French basketball finds itself in a bit of a storm, having previously finished on the victors' podiums in as many international competitions (3rd in the 2019 World Cup, finalist at the 2021 Olympics and Euro 2022). Its performance in Indonesia also prolongs a disappointing summer of French sport, which was also marked by a miserable showing at the World Athletics Championships. On Sunday, the national delegation returned from Budapest with just one medal, a silver in the men's 4 x 400 m relay.
"In itself, it's not tragic to lose to the fantastic Canadian team and the Latvians, who had nothing to lose in their first-ever World Cup," consoled former Les Bleus center Frédéric Weis. "But it also shows that we don't have much of a margin over the other teams, contrary to what we may have thought when we arrived at the competition."
However, he pointed to two problems with what the French are saying. Firstly, they presented themselves as going for the gold. "I have the impression that we went there a little too relaxed, so let's try to aim for the last four before talking about a title." Then in the pre-match promises: "Defensively, we didn't show the expected aggression or the offensive rebounds." Against Latvia, Les Bleus also turned the ball over 20 times. "Maybe we came in a little less hungry," captain Nicolas Batum admitted after the elimination.
The return of the experienced "Batman" and Nando De Colo – absent since Euro 2022 in Germany – was not enough to prevent the rout, especially as the latter was sent off against Latvia for two unsportsmanlike fouls. Collet simply brought in young Sylvain Francisco (25) at point guard. Without Frank Ntilikina due to injury, the coach also had to do without Thomas Heurtel who has been temporarily excluded from the national team by The French Basketball Federation after he signed with a Russian club (Zenit St Petersburg) following the start of the conflict with Ukraine.
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