Team USA upset by France in the group stage opener.
The United States Men’s National basketball team are the favorites to win the gold this summer and looked to build off momentum from their win last Monday against Spain in the first game of the summer Olympics against France. The goal for gold just became a little tougher for Team USA as they fell to the French National team 83–76 in the first game of the group stage opener this morning. The struggles came in the final quarter for the States, with the Men’s National team giving up a 16–2 run to France to solidify the loss in the first game for Team USA in Tokyo. This was the first Olympic loss for the United States Men’s basketball team for the first time since 2004 (25-game win streak), showing how dominant this country has been in this event in the Olympics.
In Team USA’s loss to France, Frenchmen and Boston Celtics forward Evan Fournier lead the charge for France in the upset over the U.S. Fournier scored a game-high 28 points on 4 of 12 (33.3%) shooting from deep and 11 of 22 (50%) shooting overall. The second-leading scorer for the French National Team was Utah Jazz’s starting center Rudy Gobert, who finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds on 5 of 6 shooting from the field in the victory.
Despite having 4 players finish in double figures, team USA was still unable to come out with the win. The leading scorer for the Men’s National Team was point guard and recent NBA champion Jrue Holiday. Holiday finished with 18 points and 7 rebounds for Team USA. The second-leading scorer was Miami Heats’ starting big man Bam Adebayo, finishing with a double-double of 12 points and 10 boards.
Arguably Team USA’s best players Kevin Durant and Damian Lillard had a tough game trying to stay consistent from the field in today’s loss over France. Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant finished with just 10 points on 4 of 12 (33.3%) shooting from the field, and a struggling 1 for 6 (16.6%) from three. All-star Damian Lillard came from everywhere on offense, finishing with 11 points on 3 of 9 (33.3%) shooting from deep and 3 of 10 (30%) shooting overall. After the loss, Lillard reflected on Team USA’s struggles and mistakes, saying:
“We let one get away, there’s a lot of things we could have done better, including making shots.”
Team USA’s head coach Gregg Popovich spoke on consistency for Team USA moving forward after today’s loss. “The French team played very consistent basketball on both ends of the court and did a great job,” U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s our goal going forward, to be more consistent.”
Team USA is one of 12 countries competing in the basketball group stages, currently sitting in group A with 4 other countries. Those countries include France, Iran, and the Czech Republic, as they play them to move on and potentially qualify for the single-elimination final that starts on August 3rd. With the morning loss to France, team USA’s next game will be on Wednesday against Iran.