For their fourth preparation match, the Blues are moving up a gear at the LDLC Arena by facing Nikola Jokic's Serbia. A Serbia that is playing its first real preparation match but has quickly found its cruising speed behind its national “Joker” (20 points, 12 rebounds).
A 27-9 in the second quarter
With a starting five that has now become classic, Victor Wembanyama perfectly launches the hostilities with a mid-range shot, which he follows up with a “stepback” on the nose of Nikola Jokic, who assumes defensive cover on the tricolor alien. Opposite, Serbia responds through Onjen Dobric who goes to the dunk on a lost ball and quickly points to 7 units at 3/3 in the shots.
In front of their home crowd, the Blues gradually raise their defensive cursor and they take up to 10 points in advance, under the leadership of an enterprising Frank Ntilikina offensively. The future leader of Partizan gives the Blues some breathing room with his second three-point shot, taken without fear and without reproach (23-18).
But the Serbs do not disunite. Quite the contrary, they are very present on the offensive rebound, like the Joker who weighs more and more heavily against Wemby. If the Nugget takes a passage in force with the elbow forward at first, he scores a 3-pointer on the buzzer of the possession which launches a series as scathing as bloody: a 14-4 which becomes a 27-9 over the entire 2nd quarter!
Nikola Jokic is served a lot under the circle and if he also misses a lot of easy shots (for him), Serbia goes it alone and arrives at half-time with a nice cushion of 13 points (45-32). Except for a nice alley-oop between Wemby and Lessort, it's a Berezina for Vincent Collet's troop, far from its objectives of moving the ball from one side to the other or even playing the recovery…
Serbs too realistic
The third quarter resumes with this Serbian dynamic. Discreet (because without long range address), Bogdan Bogdanovic plays with the French defense which has clearly lost its footing since the first quarter. Frustration takes over the French camp, while defensive errors accumulate and Evan Fournier receives a technical foul after having requested a foul too vehemently.
Serbia keeps a fairly clear advantage, at +10, but the Blues find defensive intensity, with Matthew Strazel, but also Nicolas Batum who sets an example by provoking the offensive foul of Bogdan Bogdanovic. There is some improvement in the 3rd quarter but France is still running behind the score before the final period: -8 (60-52).
The Serbs hit the French back at the start of the last quarter, with a 4-0 lead and a very quick time-out from Vincent Collet.
The electroshock doesn't really work with Victor Wembanyama, visibly worn out, who pushes a little too hard. Strazel tries to get his team back behind the arc but Serbia holds on. Well, until money time…
A little too aggressive in his low post attacks, with the hook shot, Nikola Jokic takes his fifth foul and has to leave his partners while the Blues are back to -8 with less than 4 minutes to go. Lessort and Coulibaly come to put everything in the circle and the public starts to dream of a victory that seemed to have evaporated for a long time. But Micic and Petrusev calm their ardor from afar and Serbia ends up winning (79-67).
For the Blues, there is still a lot of work to do, especially on the offensive side. Vincent Collet and his players still have two games to work on, on July 19 and 21 in Orléans, against Canada and Australia.
