If the defeat of the Blues against Latvia, which eliminates France, was the biggest earthquake of the last day of the World Cup, the defeat of Finland against Japan (99-88) also marked the spirits .
The “Wolves” indeed came out of a good 7th place at the last EuroBasket, but after a first defeat against Australia, Lauri Markkanen and his gang failed to bounce back against Japan. The interior of the Jazz compiled 27 points and 12 rebounds but, opposite, the naturalized Joshua Hawkinson recorded an impressive double-double (28 points, 19 rebounds) while the elf Yuki Kawamura made the show (25 points, 9 passes).
In difficulty during the first match, the leader of 1m72 found his teeth against Finland.
Winning for Yuta Watanabe
“Recently, I haven’t been able to shoot well and that has bothered the team, as well as everyone who trusted me”, reacted Yuki Kawamura after the matchwho was thinking above all of his captain, Yuta Watanabe, who plays injured and who announced that this World Cup could be his last competition with the national team, if Japan does not qualify for the Olympics. “I think everyone knows how Yuta feels about this tournament. I absolutely want to win and not let him retire.
With this victory, Japan can still dream of getting out of the “group of death”. For that, it will still be necessary to beat Australia in the last match of this first phase, Tuesday.
Obviously, on the Finnish side, the atmosphere was very different after this defeat against the Japanese host.
“I don’t know if we panicked, but we played a bit silly”thus regretted Sasu Salin. “We played too fast, we put the ball in the key, when they were all there. Kudos to them for playing much smarter than us.”
Like France, Finland probably thought that talent would be enough to make the difference…
“We allowed them to play the way they like to play”concludes Sasu Salin. “They were in front of their supporters. Okay, they put in a lot of tough shots, but we couldn’t find an answer. »
Photo credit: FIBA.com
