After six days of work in Normandy, the French team launched its Olympic summer this Wednesday evening in a sold-out Kindarena in Rouen (5,467 spectators).
Faced with a Turkish team already eliminated from the Olympic race, and therefore without its NBA stars, Vincent Collet and his staff (including the new Cavs coach, Kenny Atkinson) propose an original five, with three youngsters (Victor Wembanyama, Bilal Coulibaly and Matthew Strazel) supervised by Rudy Gobert, the control tower, and Isaia Cordinier as collective cement at the back. Enough to test several configurations…
Dominators inside
The Blues start off with a bang, with Rudy Gobert opening the hostilities with a big dunk, well served from the high post by Victor Wembanyama. And the two “seven footers” add another layer on a magnificent blind pass from Wemby. Who adds a block on poor Sadik Kabaca at the end of possession. France starts with an 11-1 with a dominating Gobert! And a big dunk from Yabusele on top!
We rotate the squad in the middle of the quarter with five players coming on at once, including Nadir Hifi and Théo Malédon on the back line. The latter makes a very nice entrance, first serving Yabusele for a big dunk, then an opportunistic tap. The Blues offer interesting defensive sequences in intensity, and that leads to two open 3-point shots for De Colo and Ntilikina.
If the game is a little more confusing with an experimental five at the end of the half, France nevertheless leads by a wide margin (50-28) after two new massive alley-oops for Victor Wembanyama, including a back dunk on a laser pass from Batum. Wemby adds a three-point shot, soon imitated by Hifi at the possession buzzer!
Wemby and Yabusele put on a show!
The Blues resume the match at the right end after the locker room. If they miss more baskets, like an unfortunate Mathias Lessort near the circle, they continue to lead the race. Without much fear, while Yabusele scores 3-pointers, in front of his close friends who came as locals (just behind the French bench).
The Madrilenian then sends a powerful two-handed dunk. Before Lessort feasts on a ball thrown into the air by Frank Ntilikina on the following action!
The latter is effective from afar and still pressing defensively to offer himself a very good passage. The gap reaches thirty before the last quarter (67-37). And the demonstration continues with a 16-0 to open the fourth! The Blues put on a show in the last quarter with Yabusele who takes off before sending Wembanyama into orbit for a new stratospheric dunk!
The staff rotates again in the last quarter, to see Hoard, Maledon, Hifi and Coulibaly again. Théo Maledon takes advantage to score a 3-pointer and the Blues conclude their match with an easy 50-point victory (96-46).
Now it's time for the double duel against the German world champions, Saturday in Cologne then Monday in Montpellier.
