“Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” A paradox that has been animating debates for centuries. In basketball, there is another paradox: is the best attack defense, or, on the contrary, is the best defense attack? Listen Evan FournierVincent Collet is in favor of the first option. Except that it would be an archaic strategy!
“At times I think we make mistakes in the way we want to play” he confides to The Team after the defeat against Germany. “And we pay the price for that. Nowadays, the best defense is offense. It's not the game of the 1990s or 2000s where you could defend half-court. Your offense is everything.”
Before the start of the Olympic Games, and even before the World Cup, the coach of the Blues has constantly repeated that the Blues had to focus on defense. Collet even spoke of “exceptional defense”. It must be said that France has, in its squad, the two best defenders in the NBA. At least, the first two in the Defensive Player Of The Year votes with Rudy Gobert and Vincent Wembanyama.
The Blues are 9th out of 12 in the ranking of the best attacks
With 80.3 points conceded per match, France has the 2nd best defense in the competition. Except that it also has the 9th attack in the Olympic Games with only 81 points scored per match.
“When we play, they don't let the best players express themselves” explains Fournier about Germany. “They were better in their execution, they imposed their style of play, and what they wanted to do on us.”
What does Nicolas Batum, the captain of the Blues, think about it? “We showed for 15 minutes that we can be a good defensive team, with intensity, again tonight. If we can do that for forty minutes, we have a great chance of beating a lot of teams. I'm not saying we're going to win every game, but we have a great chance of beating a lot of teams.”
