Going for a big victory against Lithuania on Saturday, the Blues recovered their heads after the worrying defeat against Germany in the opener. A success that had to be confirmed this Sunday against Hungary. Confirmation validated for the French team, failing to shine.
With the surprise defeat of Slovenia earlier, but also that of Spain at the very beginning of the afternoon or even Turkey this evening, it was a very difficult Sunday for the favorites of this EuroBasket 2022. And France almost – too – fell into the trap of complacency against the weakest team in their group. If it’s never easy to get back into it against a “small” after hitting a heavyweight the day before, the difference in level between the Blues and Hungary promised us a relatively quiet evening. And when we saw the start of the match, we thought it was going to roll on its own: 17-5 for EDF after six minutes of play, serious defense behind the activity of Andrew Albicy and Terry Tarpey, good ball circulation in attack with Rudy Gobert well served inside, and Guerschon Yabusele who continues to shine, in short the lights were green. But we know, this version of the Blues often finds ways to give us cold sweats. We had further proof of this on Sunday evening.
So this one mdrrrrr pic.twitter.com/A8p6xBg213
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) September 4, 2022
Eager to rotate his group in view of the upcoming deadlines, Vincent Collet gave a lot of minutes to his bench. To give managers a breath of fresh air, but also to empower everyone because coach Vincent knows very well that he will need every element to go far. Except that this is a bit what revived Hungary at the end of each half-time, the second unit being unable to maintain the pressure exerted by the holders. Among the big black points of the match on the blue-white-red side? Turnovers. 20 in total. Yes, 20. That makes them gifts. And in basketball, usually when we give gifts, we get penalized directly. Even when it’s the 43rd nation in the world opposite. There was in particular this 11-0 conceded in the first half and which allowed the Hungarians to be in contact at the break 42-39. And then above all, there was this disgusting fourth quarter (11-21 for Hungary) where the 14-point advantage built under the impetus of Evan Fournier almost vanished. Sterile offensive possessions, 50-50 ball in favor of the Hungarians, a few big shots scored opposite by Adam Hanga and David Vojvoda, free throws left on the way, and hop all of a sudden we found ourselves with real money -time. Tell yourself that Hungary even had the ball to go ahead at 74-72 but a failure by Vojvoda averted a disaster. Yabusele and Vavane then secured victory on the line, a victory that will clearly not go down in French basketball history.
The ranking of the French team after three matches:
- Germany: 3-0 record
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2-1
- Slovenia: 2-1
- France : 2-1
- Lithuania: 0-3
- Hungary: 0-3
(reminder: the first four pass to play the round of 16)
Upcoming deadlines:
- vs Bosnia and Herzegovina: Tuesday September 6 at 2:30 p.m.
- vs Slovenia: Wednesday September 7 at 5:15 p.m.
The optimists will say that the essentials have been covered tonight and that things will be better in the next game. Skeptics will point the finger at this performance to underline once again the doubts that may surround this French team. No matter where you are, we expect much better from these Blues. Come on, rest tomorrow, and we’ll be back on track on Tuesday for the match against Bosnia.
Final score: 78-74 for France.
We SWEAT.
We were scared, but we won.The way isn’t there, there’s still work to do, we can’t afford this kind of fear.
So yes let’s keep the positive in mind there’s the win it’s been 2 in a row so it’s better, but be careful.
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) September 4, 2022
