Shenzhen (China) (AFP)

French basketball players did the job in their second World Cup game by crushing weak Jordan 103 to 64 on Tuesday in Shenzhen.

The Blues are qualified and will finish the first round against the Dominican Republic on Thursday. The match will have more relief than expected because the Dominicans have created the surprise by beating Germany (70-68). They also know their opponents of the second phase this weekend in Nanjing, Australia and Lithuania as expected.

Facing the Jordanians, the only unknowns were the way and the gap at the end of the match. The Blues have treated both applying, even if the beginning of the game was a little hard (they led 33-31 only in the middle of the second quarter).

Jordan has only two top players, the American Dar Tucker, a former Aix-Maurienne (ProB) who was up (20 points), and Ahmad Al-Dwairi. This pivot of 2.10 m which plays a minor role in Fenerbahçe and was illustrated during the short Jordanian defeat (80-76) against the Dominican Republic (34 points), this time fell on much too strong for him with Rudy Gobert.

- Gobert dominant -

The Utah Jazz star completely smothered him in defense (6 points scored only) and made the show in attack with 16 points and several dunks.

"Except in the second quarter, we were very solid, we stayed focused until the end, it was a match we had to use to progress while respecting the opponent," said Gobert, who also picked up 13 rebounds.

The other very good news was the reaction of Nando De Colo. In difficulty during the victory over Germany, the sixth luxury man finished better French marker with 19 points. He regaled the public with his assists in the back (8 assists in total). Amath M'Baye has again shone with 11 points in just 17 minutes and 3 of 4 at three points, an area in which the French have been successful (12 of 19) against a mild defense.

As expected, Vincent Collet was able to use all his bench, except Louis Labeyrie who hurt his leg early in the game. He was able to rest Captain Nicolas Batum who had a slight back pain in the previous match. From the beginning, he had changed his starting five by starting Frank Ntilikina instead of Andrew Albicy. The young leader of the New York Knicks did not hesitate to take initiatives and was very good (12 points, 5 assists).

© 2019 AFP