The United States fell to France, their first Olympic basketball loss since 2004.
France surprised and beat the United States 83-76, a great favorite to win gold in the men’s basketball tournament, this Sunday in Saitama, the North American giant’s first Olympic defeat since a fall in the Athens-2004 semi-finals. What was against Argentina.
It was the European team’s second consecutive win over North American after the quarter-finals of the China-2019 World Cup.
The best player on the French team was Boston Celtics guard Ivan Fournier, who scored 28 points.
In the second Group A match, Czech Republic started with an 84–78 win over Iran.
Los Blas, who lost to Argentina in the semi-finals of the World Cup two years ago after beating the American giants, will reach the quarter-finals after beating the Czech Republic on Wednesday.
The United States had a streak of 25 consecutive Olympic Games as of this Sunday. Their last defeat was in the semi-finals of the 2004 Athens Games. Since then, gold in Beijing-2008, London-2012 and Rio-2016.
The Greg Popovich-led side showed what they had in preparation with their losses to Nigeria and Australia.
Their overflowing individual talent when it comes to scoring doesn’t match with the necessary team play and automatism that more cohesive groups like the French have.
pm/mcd
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