Pre Game
The two favorites of Group H met in the first game of the group stage to start their respective World Cup campaigns. Both teams are stacked with NBA and top level international talent so it was set out to be a battle. For France this World Cup is super important coming off a silver medal at the 2022 Eurobasket, and with the Olympics coming next summer at home in Paris. For Canada, potentially winning a medal and qualifying directly for the Olympics, will be the main goal in the tournament.
The Game
France got the better start and jumped out to an early 21-14 lead in the 2nd quarter, which turned out to be their biggest in the game. Paced by Evan Fournier, who had a really good 1st half. Canada re-grouped in the 2nd quarter by scoring 29 points and taking a 43-40 half-time lead.
Canada then proceeded to blow the game wide open with a strong 25-8 3rd quarter, that saw their lead rise up to 20 points (68-48). The 4th quarter would see more of the same as Canada cruised (27-17) to an easy 95-65 win with their biggest lead reaching up to 34 points. It was a complete domination by Canada in the 2nd half and France didn't have anything left to put up a fight and make it a close contest.
Team Canada
- Canada was able to score well around the rim and in the mid-range, finishing the game 21/37 (56.8%) and also got to foul line a lot (27 FTA to France´s 13)
- 2nd shot attempts. The Canadians grabbed 15 offensive rebounds to France´s 6 and it led to a plus in shot attempts of +13 (73-60)
- Canada´s defense at the 3pt line was very good. They were able to cool off a hot starting Evan Fournier and held him to 3/13 from downtown. Lu Dort, Dillon Brooks and Nickeil Alexander-Walker really got up into Fournier´s space and made things very difficult for him in the 2nd half
- Ballcontrol&Passing. 20 Assists as a team and only 10 turnovers is always a great number. They also were able to pressure France defensively, creating 9 steals and forcing 17 turnovers from France
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took over especially in the 2nd half and finished with 27 PTs, 13 REBs & 6 ASTs. The All-NBA 1st teamer got the shots he wanted in the 1st half but couldn´t confert them at a high rate but got hot in the 2nd half. He led a balanced offense that also saw Alexander-Walker score 12 PTs, Kelly Olynyk 18 PTs and Dillon Brooks 12 PTs
Les Bleus
- A tale of 2 very different halves. Led by the mentioned Fournier and his hot start they were able to keep it close in the 1st half but got off track when Canada shut him down and France could not create much offense elsewhere
- France couldn´t make 3-pointers (6/28) and didn´t get to the foul line. They were very solid inside the arch, shooting 59.4% on 2s (19/32)
- Too many turnovers, couldn’t control their defensive board and allowed way too many 2nd chances for Canada (16 PTs in total)
- They allowed 20 PTs from Canada via their own turnovers which hurt them a lot
- France only had 4 players who scored more than 6 points which was a big problem with a roster of many talented players. Also some line-ups were questionable with Lessort and Gorbert side by side with no real outside shooting threat on the big positions.
Going Forward
Canada easily handled Lebanon with a big win,128-73, while setting the all-time World Cup record with 44 Assists. Their final group match-up was against a tough Latvia squad where a strong 2nd half push (58-33) saw then sweep their group with a 101-75 win. In the 2nd group stage Canada will face off against 3-0 Spain and 2-1 Brazil, looking to book their place in the quarterfinals.
France´s woes continued against Latvia, narrowly losing 88-86 and surprisingly dropping out in the group phase. They switched up the line-up a bit by giving more minutes to Sylvain Franciso and Terry Tarpey but again fell victim to 20 own turnovers and handing Latvia 11 shots more from the field, a similar story as in the Canada game. France then beat Lebanon in their final group game (85-79) and will not play in the classification round for the places 17-32 against the Ivory Coast and Iran.
