EuroBasket: Brutal return to earth for the Blues
DECRYPTION – The French team lost to Israel on Sunday, their third Euro outing. Was it an accident?
A roller coaster, blue sauce. After the show of strength against a plucked Belgium (92-64) on Thursday, the Tricolores laid low Luka Doncic's Slovenia (103-95) in two halves on Saturday. Two matches during which the athletic qualities and the sense of sharing of the French team worked wonders. With all the same the historic hot streak of Sylvain Francisco to save the evening against the Slovenians (32 points) . Did we see them as too good? Possible. Did they see themselves as too good? " No, I don't think so," says Jaylen Hoard. And yet, the setback is brutal: Israel shook the fragile French edifice (82-69) on Sunday, in Katowice (Poland). " It was a complicated match," summarizes Freddy Fauthoux with modesty.
A fall for the Blues, who will face Poland (3 wins), Tuesday evening (8:30 p.m.), for their fourth outing at EuroBasket (Group D). " It will be like a final. We will have to be ready, rest. We have one day to prepare. We will be ready and we will show a better face, that's for sure, " insists Elie Okobo . And adds: " We will have to recover ."
Skip the adIt remains to be seen whether it was a simple accident. Several elements are intriguing. Starting with the state of mind. The French warriors were not recognized. " We didn't have the right attitude ," asserts Freddy Fauthoux . " We didn't play with the right energy," asserts Jaylen Hoard . " We should have attacked them. We didn't. They only committed one foul in the fourth quarter with a minute left... This is not normal," notes Élie Okobo, emphasizing in passing that the French team "did not defend properly. They scored 82 points. That's way too many."
Individually, too many players failed to deliver, from Théo Malédon to Isaïa Cordinier, including Bilal Coulibaly, Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot and Nadir Hifi. Not to mention yesterday's hero, Sylvain Francisco (2 pts, 1/8). As he has since the start of the tournament, Guerschon Yabusele also struggled to express himself offensively . Targeted by defenses, the captain of the Blues is at a standstill, even if he does his best to make himself useful elsewhere. It's inevitably less easy to shine as number 1 than when the opponent is obsessed with Victor Wembanyama or Evan Fournier. It's been said over and over again, this young French team lacks experience, but also a top scorer to get it out of the rut when the team falters. This is not a surprise.
We don't want to show weaknesses for the next teams.
Elie Okobo
Beyond these aspects, the French team has never managed to break through the Israeli zone defense. This is perhaps the most worrying thing in the end. " We don't want to show weaknesses for the following teams," complains Okobo. Yet this is exactly what happened on Sunday. Fearing the athleticism of the Blues, their ability to attack the circle, the Israelis closed off access to the paint and allowed long shots. Good call. France flooded (8/32) and dug its own grave. " We weren't surprised. We know this defense. We didn't attack well. That's all ," grumbles Fauthoux , who had never known defeat as a coach (11-0) until now.
Also read EuroBasket: "We'll have to pull ourselves together," insists Élie Okobo after Israel-France
" We're an athletic team, capable of penetrating and getting the ball out. Tonight, we stayed around the line and just shot," laments Okobo, who scored 13 points, including 10 in less than a minute spanning the last two quarters, stressing that the Blues were " unable to move (the ball), execute, punish them on switches and give the ball inside. It's something we'll have to work on. We didn't execute anything tonight." Just barely. " We need to have more alternation, two-pointers, drives... If the shots don't go in, we have to try to get closer to the circle, make easy baskets ," notes the precious Hoard, who shone with his efficiency and simplicity in this game (12 pts, 6/8 shooting) .
Among the few good marks, there is also Zaccharie Risacher (14 pts). The management of the end of the match is not one of them… Close to leading by 7 points at the start of the fourth quarter, the Blues exploded in flight, for a time pushed back to -16. They let go. Gone are the great collective values that we knew them to have until now. The black hole. “ The end of the match was disappointing. We should have stayed united. We didn't want to lose this match, but we can learn things and use them for the next ones ,” swears Hoard .
Skip the adIt's up to this French team, which remains " under construction ," as coach Fauthoux reminds us, and will be throughout the campaign, to learn quickly. If possible, by Tuesday evening, against Poland, in a match that must be won in order to aim for first place in the group, knowing that the second-placed team in Group D could face Serbia in the quarter-finals.
Also read: Nicolas Batum before EuroBasket: "The Blues want to shut everyone's mouths"
I doubt I'll see them play the same game every day.
Nicolas Batum
In any case, let's not pretend to be surprised. Nicolas Batum had said it all before the start of the competition, seen it all, anticipated it all. " They're going to give us a scare ," guessed the former French captain, after the comeback against Spain (78-73), at the Accor Arena (Paris), in preparation . They're going to alternate between a huge match like in Badalona (75-67 victory) , then a rotten first period like in Bercy... I may be wrong, but I doubt I'll see them play the same match every day ." So far, the TF1 consultant has it all right, he who also saw the Blues going " very far " at the Euro. It's up to them to prove him right until the end by confirming, on the court, that this bad evening was just a bump in the road.
lefigaro
