Beijing (AFP)

The leaders who had brought the French basketball team to the semifinals of the World Cup, Evan Fournier, Rudy Gobert, Nando De Colo and Nicolas Batum, were not at the meeting Friday during the defeat against the Argentina (80-66).

Stunning against the Americans two days before, Gobert scored only three points. He was also in difficulty in defense, to the point that Vincent Collet made it out earlier than usual in the first quarter when the Argentinian Luis Scola inside was already wreaking havoc inside (28 points in the end of the match).

"Rudy was dominated by aggression, and even when he was rebounding sometimes, he'd come down and get them back, and it was not the same as the previous games. Not as hard, we had not yet met a team that leads us on the face like that, "commented the coach.

Fournier, the best blue in attack so far, scored well 16 points, but with a lot of waste (6 of 17 shooting, 3 of 7 in the free throw). He made his fourth foul by the end of the third quarter and came back into play only four minutes from the mermaid, but it was too late.

"Evan was targeted and he absolutely wanted to do the same thing as in previous games except that it was not the same match.The Argentine defense was quite different from anything we had faced so far. They had an impressive defensive number, sometimes up to three players on one of ours, "said Collet.

- Difficult to wear the standard -

He also joined the bench faster than usual to make way for Nando De Colo, but the sixth man failed to change the course of the match. The back scored 11 points, most of them causing fouls and shooting free throws (7 of 8), but he only took five shots throughout the match (2 successful).

Nicolas Batum did not find the target (1 of 6 shot) and ended the game with only 3 points, 5 rebounds and 1 pass.

Like their teammates, the locomotives of the French team were shaken by the aggressiveness of the Argentines. "We talked a lot about it but the players did not realize that it was possible, that's the very high level, it's the ability to rise in those moments. this defensive overpressure, "said Collet.

The four major players have at no time to ring the revolt. Argentina had a moment 16 points ahead and never the Blues could reduce to the gap to less than 8 points, in the last quarter.

"Our leaders were in trouble, it was harder to wear the standard as they had in previous games," concluded Collet.

© 2019 AFP