Paris 2024 Olympics: French basketball team wins silver medal after defeat in final against United States

Les Bleus du basket sont médaillés d’argent après leur défaite en finale face aux États-Unis. MAXPPP – Julien Mattia/Le Pictorium

L'équipe de France de basket-ball a décroché la médaille d'argent après sa défaite en final des Jeux Olympiques de Paris 2024 face aux États-Unis (98-87) samedi 10 août.

As in Tokyo in 2021, the Blues lost on the last step against “Team USA” and its legion of stars playing in the NBA. Stephen Curry, imperial with eight winning baskets (top US scorer with 24 points) played a major role in the 17th American victory at the Olympics.

Kevin Durant, author of 15 points, won gold for the fourth time, a record for men. Superstar LeBron James adds a third to his collection, having shown himself to be valuable on all levels (14 pts, 10 assists, 6 rebounds).

Under the impetus of Victor Wembanyama, finally up to speed on the offensive side (26 pts) and who ended in tears, for his first major competition in the blue jersey, as well as mover Gershon Yabusele, again exemplary of combativeness (20 pts), the Blues resisted very strongly in a first period of great intensity.

A hot atmosphere between the two teams

Scalded by their slow-burn start against the Serbs in the semi-finals, the Americans, who had only gotten through thanks to a big burst of speed at the end of the match, learned their lesson and set a great pace from the start.

The contacts were sometimes rough and the names of birds flew, proof that no one was going to give up the slightest centimeter, like Yabusele who crushed a huge dunk on James who fell backwards, to get back to four points (40-36) at the end of the second quarter.

De Colo and Fournier keep hope alive

Down by eight points at the break (49-41), the French were a bit down in the third quarter, falling 14 points behind. But they were able to react, thanks to the awakening of Evan Fournier, who had not been very successful until then but had scored eight points in a row, his total over the entire match.

With the French defense once again biting, the Americans missed baskets and the Blues gradually eroded their deficit, to the point of coming back to -3, thanks to Nando De Colo with his twenty-year-old legs back. That was without counting on that devil Curry, a wonderful dream breaker…