BARCELONA, Spain– For those of you who were hoping for a Team USA-Spain match up in finals of the FIBA World cup of basketball, this may come as a shocker.
France rocked Spain’s world last night, winning, 65-52, before a stunned crowd at the Palais Deportes in Madrid. The upset opened the door for a young American team to win the gold.
Team USA will play Lithuania in the semi-finals here tonight while France will meet Serbia in the other semifinal Friday night in Madrid.
This one was a stunner of epic proportions. Spain had easily dispatched France, 88-64, in pool play. But Spain played like the smarter, more determined team the second time around.
Forward Boris Diaw from the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs led France, which was playing without NBA stars Tony Parker from the Spurrs– the MVP of his country’s gold medal team in 2013 Eurobasket; or
6-10 Joakim Noah from Chicago; with 15 points and guard Thomas Huertel added 13, including a dagger three with just over a minute left to give
France a 60-52 lead. Utah Jazz7-7-1 big man Rudy Gobert made several spectactular defensive plays to limit Spain’s effectiveness inside down the stretch. France’s smothering defense limited Spain to just 2-for-22 from the three. ..
Paul Gasol, the Chciago Bulls’ 7-1 center and the leading scorer in the knockout rounds, led Spain with 17 points but Spanish veteran guard Juan Carlos Navarro was the only other player in double figures and stars Marc Gasol, Ricky rubio and Serge Ibaka shot a dreadful combined 3-for-21.
France national coach Vincent Collett came up with a brilliant game plan, controlling the tempo against a team that had won its first six games by an average of 26.5 points and looked capable of scoring 100 points in any given game, by running the 24 second clock down on every offensive possession. The French led 35-28 at the half when high scoring Spain shot
just 36 percent and 1 for 11 from the three. Spain, which arguably had more experienced talent than any team in this tournament, took a 43-42 lead early in the third quarter on a Sergio Rodriguez to Rady Fernandez alley oop that was followed by a
Paul Gasol block. The French, who only scored seven points in the third quarter, looked like it might collapse but then Gobert, who finished with 5 points and 13 rebounds, making a spectacular block on Pau Gasol with 4:56 to ignite a game winning run
and Spain, which mised 13 of its 16 shots in the fourth quarter, did not help itself by rushing its offensive sets in the final three minutes. .
“If we don’t elevate our defensive leve, there’s no game,” Collet told FIBA afterwards. “When you play against a team that is better than you, the first goal is to slow them down. If you want to be beter than them yhou” never win.”
