We are far from the offensive demonstration of Wednesday in Orleans, but the French team has indeed maintained its invincibility for its first match of the away preparation. Faced with Lithuanians wound up like clockwork, and a diabolical Eimentas Bendzius at 3-points, the Blues ended up winning on the wire (76-70).
Bendzius on fire
After a rather difficult trip to Vilnius, the Blues add another factor to their still immaculate preparation: fatigue. In addition to a vengeful opponent at home. But with Evan Fournier back, France got off to the best start, with two interceptions from the Knicks back and a Guerschon Yabusele already on 7 points.
The reaction of the Baltics is not long in coming, with Eimentas Bendzius who returns a first, then a second, and even a third shot from 3-pointers to put his team in front (15-13). Rudy Gobert may well slam a big dunk, but it is the Lithuanians who dominate with Jonas Valanciunas who strikes behind the arc and causes a lot of faults.
When Ignaz Brazdeikis crushes a dunk on a palace service from Rokas Jokubaitis, the gap rises to 9 units in favor of the locals (24-15). The polished attacking game of the Blues is clearly disturbed. Bendzius takes his fifth shot from 3-pointers in the quarter, but fortunately Nando De Colo limits the breakage at the end of the period (29-25).
The defensive jump
With only two points in five minutes, a superb alley-oop between Fournier and Gobert concluded in traffic, Frank Ntilikina offers a breath of fresh air to the tricolor attack. Opposite, Lithuania does not score much more (7 points in 9 minutes). In short, the defenses have largely taken precedence over the attack, like Batum and Gobert’s air ball…
The Blues end the quarter better with Yabusele who concludes a great collective action with a big right hand dunk, before putting a layer on the alley oop on the counterattack. Effective near the circle, France has not yet set the target at 3-points (4/12), and it is still fishing for rebounds (-7) while the staff has visibly tightened its rotation. But she is doing well, tied at the break (39-39).
Captain Batum leads the way
The second half resumed with a 5-0 Lithuanian, followed by a 6-0 French. The Blues continue to change their defense, and Batum comes against Motiejunas from behind. It’s the turn of the Balts to lose track of their basketball, with Bendzius and Valanciunas having to join the bench. They are at 17 stray balls but they stay the course on the scoreboard at least.
Captain Batum looks out the window again and leads by example at the end of the third quarter. He inherits a lucky dunk after a scramble and he finally settles the sights at 3-pointers. France even took a five-point lead after an offensive rebound from Okobo. As expected, and hoped for by Collet and his staff, there is a match before the last quarter: +2 for the Blues (58-56).
Ntilikina shows up… and gets hurt!
Reduced to the bare minimum in attack, namely a few meager throws, the Lithuanians still cannot find solutions. Meanwhile, Okobo and Ntilikina combine well and allow France to move quickly to +10 after three minutes in the last quarter.
If Deividas Sirvydis goes to dunk on a stupidly lost ball, the Blues take their match seriously, like an ever more confident Ntilikina in shooting. Unfortunately, the substitute leader injured his thigh (case to follow) and, from -9 after a difficult basket from Valanciunas, there are only 4 points left with one minute remaining after another arrow from the inevitable Bendzius (74-70).
Evan Fournier scores the basket which feels good, and France finishes the job with two interceptions which seal the fate of the match (76-70). It is therefore a fifth victory in five games for the Blues who have certainly had to fight, but are still undefeated.
STATS
Guerschon Yabusele (19 pts, 6 rbdsn 4 pds); Frank Ntilikina (13 pts); Rudy Gobert (12 pts, 8 rebounds); Nicolas Batum (7 pts, 5 rebounds, 7 wt); Elie Okobo (9 pts, 6 rebounds, 4 ints); Nando De Colo (7 pts, 4 wt)…
Photo credit: Lenoir/The Agency/FFBB
