Serbia showed the whole world in the semifinal that a smaller basketball nation can push The American Dream Team to the end. France led by Victor Wembanyama, will try to do the almost impossible in the gold medal match today, defeating Team USA. France has one great advantage, their fanatic home crowd in Paris.
France as we know by now finished second in Group B after Germany. The went on to defeat Canada in the quarter final and they got a sweet revenge when they got the better of Germany in the semifinals. Before The Olympics started Rudy Gobert, the defensive player of the year in the NBA was a starter. He isn’t any more. He is benched and the team got better. Mathias Lessort and Guerschon Yabusele have been getting Rudy’s minutes and the two of them are doing a great job with their physicality and grit. How will these two cope with the physicality of Bam Adebayo, Anthony Davis and Joel Embiid? Lessort is a great player but a bit undersized for his position as a center. Nando De Colo is benched and Frank Ntiklina stats at point guard and Isaia Cordonier’s shooting has blossomed in the elimination phase of the olympic tournament. Batum is the glue guy team and Fournier could be an X-factor if he makes his shots from behind the arc. France's defence is awesome. They must make Shots to put pressure on Team USA.
Team USA was down by 13 points after three quarters versus Serbia in the semis. They were under obvious pressure and Lebron spent much Time talking to the referees and some of the Serbian players. At the end Serbia missed a shot or two to much and USA turned it around and won 95-91 after Steph Curry scored 36 points and made 9 out of 14 threes. Curry kept them in the game for the first three quarters when Serbia was the better team on the court. The performance from Serbia must have been very encouraging and inspirational for Team France. Joel Embiid had his best game of the event versus Serbia and he will be at the centre of attention in Paris. Embiid is from Cameroon and holds three passports. American, French and from his native country. Joel did choose to represent Team USA instead of France and that is the reason he has been booed by the French crowds during the Olympics. It will be louder than ever in the gold medal match. Steve Kerr choosed to close with Lebron, Durant, Embiid, Curry and Booker when the game was on the line against Serbia. Anything but gold for Team USA would be a huge upset and surprise.
FRANCE VS USA
1.57
FRANCE TOTAL - UNDER 76.5
FRANCE VS USA
1.57
FRANCE TOTAL - UNDER 76.5
