The French men’s basketball team experienced one of the biggest disappointments in its history a year before the Paris Olympics, eliminated from the World Basketball in the first round after their defeat on Sunday against Latvia in Jakarta (88-86 ) as she went for the title.
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Blues, crushed in opening by Canadians (95-65), can no longer join in one of the first two places in Group H Canada and the Latvians (two wins each).
However, they led by 12 points at the start of the last quarter (74-62) but saw the Latvians go ahead for the first time in the match 37 seconds from the end (87-86) before Sylvain Francisco missed. , three-point, siren victory shot.
The leader was on the ground, because France, which appears on the three current international podiums (3rd of the World Cup-2019, finalist of the Olympic Games-2021 and Euro-2022), was deprived of the holder of the post Nando De Colo. The Asvel player, one of the Blues executives at the World Cup with almost all their vital forces, joined the locker room five minutes from the end after a second technical foul, synonymous with disqualification. He had to leave his partners for a gesture of humor when he benefited from a foul.
” Huge disappointment »
“ Hot, it’s a big disappointment. We fell mentally, we fell physically, we weren’t together “, declared 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 against a private selection of his 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 a second round that the Blues will not see.
“ Our team is beautiful and being beautiful is good, but getting out there and getting your hands dirty is better “, explained the pivot Rudy Gobert, disappointing during this World Cup.
(With AFP)