The competitions follow one another and, unfortunately, are alike for the French basketball team. The Blues unfortunately lost in the final against Spain, their pet peeve, Sunday night in the Eurobasket final (88-76). But unlike many other meetings between the two teams, there was no match this time. ” It’s hard. They were better than us. They dominated us head and shoulders. Clearly they were above us. There is nothing to say, ”recognized Evan Fournier, in tears after the meeting.
A bitter taste shared by the pivot Rudy Gobert, far from displaying his best level during this lost final. “We are behind from start to finish, we are chasing the score all game. They’re not the most fun to play. Losing two finals in two years is hard. It’s up to me to be better. I did not know how to help my team. I take responsibility to come back better. I’m fed up with silver medals”, he regretted after the match.
“Our tournament problem ended up killing us”
The Blues were again weighed down by their loss of ball, “the key”, according to Vincent Collet which cost them “35 points”: “Our tournament problem ended up killing us”, underlined the coach. He also regretted the time taken to get into this final, “we were caught up in the challenge of the final, we had trouble giving ourselves up and it took fifteen minutes to break free”.
The French therefore ran behind the score throughout the match, with some tiny hopes of coming back, in turn swept away by the Spaniards “perhaps not at the level of their predecessors but real good players”, starting with the Hernangomez brothers . “It was a bit like the rock of Sisyphus, you go back up then you take a punishment behind”, concluded Vincent Collet. A habit against the Iberians in basketball.