“With the quarter-finals, it's a new competition that begins.
Vincent Collet was right.
This Tuesday, the curtain was raised on the other side of the Olympic Games, the most exciting without doubt, with the knockout matches.
But good news for the French coach, the France team has not changed one iota.
After three almost perfect group matches, which successively saw him crunch the United States, the Czech Republic and Iran, the Blues have not changed their habits as a steamroller and have logically flattened Italy.
So much for the watered-down version of the facts.
Because in reality, it is anything but a quarter in pink water that the Blues faded Tuesday afternoon at the Super Arena in Saitama.
The health walk that Squadra Azzurra's surprise guest status could have promised them turned out to be the most stifling encounter of his start to the campaign.
“It was the complicated match that I dreaded, breathes Evan Fournier, smirk, after qualifying.
We got out of the trap, because we were resilient and Nico (Batum) had a monstrous match, enormous activity.
But we screwed up at the end of the 3rd quarter.
"
Direction the semi-finals 🔥 # TeamFranceBasket #ITAFRA # Tokyo2020 # Basketball pic.twitter.com/8cNPNuQTzX
- French Basketball Teams (@FRABasketball) August 3, 2021
At that time, the Blues finally seem to have got their hands on the match and the head of their opponent. Fourteen lengths ahead, the doors of this last square, which have been closed to them for 21 years, finally open wide, almost rolling out the red carpet for them. “But we made a few mistakes and lost the pace, deplores Vincent Collet. For want of having been able to build on our good passage, we put Italy back in the race. "And forced" Batman "to play the superheroes.
In the midst of a period of turmoil around his future (Editor's note: he extended by 3 years to the Clippers a few hours before the match), Nicolas Batum was with 15 points, 14 rebounds (his record in blue), 3 interceptions, 2 blocks , one of the determining elements of the victory of the French.
“Batum was exceptional in terms of self-sacrifice and slaughter, even proclaims Vincent Collet.
He was in the oven and in the mill, scored more points than usual.
But above all he took rebounds that no one could have taken in his place.
"
🇫🇷 Nicolas Batum today?
15 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.
In 38 minutes.
To snatch, at 32, the first half Olympic final of his career with the Blues.
BOSS.
CAPTAIN.
BATMAN. # Olympic Games # Tokyo2020 # FRA #Basketball pic.twitter.com/blnVIrLJxX
- NBA Stats France (@nbastatsfrance) August 3, 2021
Haunted, again by the ghosts of the past, the failures against Spain at the same stage of the competition in London and Rio, Batum assures us that he was "not afraid" when the gap narrowed, but agrees that "some memories have returned," he smiles. And the captain explained: "The only thing I miss in the France team is an Olympic medal," he said. After the way we lost the last two editions, especially the way I played the last one, as captain I had to do something different. I couldn't leave Evan (Fournier) and Nando (De Colo) alone. I didn't do anything exceptional, I was just me, but more, more. It just worked for the team, I'm happy. I couldn't lose this game. We couldn't lose this match.And let slip the first Olympic semi-final of French basketball since the Sydney Games in 2000.
Since Batum likes to delve into the past, he no doubt remembers that that year, the Habs also had a hard time facing Italy (67-57 defeat in the pool). And that that had not prevented them from reaching the final. It will be a question of not forgetting it Thursday when it is time to challenge Slovenia of the ogre Luka Doncic.