Whicker: USA vs. France could be an Olympic basketball classic
Despite the lack of historical precedent, the French won with their defense Thursday.
They led Slovenia by one point on the final possession when Nicolas Batum, having signed a two-year extension with the Clippers on Monday, found himself alongside Klemen Prepelic. He gave up a step and then swiped aside Prepelic’s driving layup, and France survived 90-89 to set up a gold-medal game with the U.S. on Friday night.
For the first time in an Olympic final, the Americans will not be the unanimously presumed favorite, despite the way they bulldozed previously unbeaten Australia in their Thursday semifinal.
They won the third quarter 32-10, and then the game 97-78, and Kevin Durant and Devin Booker made every important shot they saw.
Still, the French led off this tournament by beating the U.S. – snapping their 25-game Olympic winning streak – and has the size the Americans lack. Rudy Gobert has been far more influential in Tokyo than he was in Utah’s Western Conference semifinal loss to the Clippers. He and Batum had four blocks each against Slovenia, and the French can turn to 7-foot Vincent Poirier and 7-2 Moustapha Fall if needed. In the win over the U.S., Poirier and Fall scored 14 with eight rebounds in 22 minutes.
The French also used their bigs to frustrate Luka Doncic in the semis, although Doncic became the third Olympian – joining LeBron James, Alexander Belov – to get a triple-double. In the final minute, Doncic was trapped quickly and had to surrender the ball, after he had missed 13 of 18 shots.
With Batum, Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nando de Colo and Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, France has NBA veterans who recognize the Americans for what they are: a B-plus team with suspect depth and minimal heft that relies on turnover creation and irresistible offense.
And those fans who have extricated their heads over the past 15 or so years would agree.
This is not the French team with Frederic Weis, who became a human hurdle for the dunking Vince Carter in 2000 and still was a first-round draft pick by the Knicks. This is also not 2008, when Kobe Bryant (29 years old), LeBron James (23), Dwight Howard (22), Camelo Anthony (24), Dwyane Wade (26) and Chris Paul (23) regained the gold in Beijing and beat everyone on the menu by at least 11 points.
These Americans are so starved for verticality that they had to add JaVale McGee, an NBA backup center. Beyond that, they’re missing James, Paul, Anthony Davis, Steph Curry. Kawhi Leonard, Julius Randle, Kyrie Irving, James Harden, Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell, Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry and Jaylen Brown.
When they lost a couple of Grapefruit League games and then dropped the Olympic opener, here came the references to Sleepy Gregg Popovich and the general obsolescence of the U.S. game.
The little brother of that tired narrative has also arrived. The Americans are bored, arrogant and don’t care.
This ignores the strains of the past two COVID-19-wracked seasons. It also attaches those clichés to those who actually flew to Tokyo, and will return with about six weeks off until training camp.
Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton barely had time to get the champagne out of their hair in Milwaukee before they got on the plane. Middleton’s wife had a child the day before he left. Booker, with Phoenix, was on the same ride, through four playoff series with heavy minutes. All three are rotational players for Team USA and Holiday has been the serrated edge of the defense.
These are largely reticent players who don’t produce movies, cure diseases or dominate the commercials. But they and some of the absentees are part of the NBA’s next 100-foot wave, and they symbolize the U.S. adjustment to international ball.
In 2004, the U.S. team really was sullen and unhappy, and it was beaten by Argentina in the semifinals because, for the most part, it couldn’t hit outside shots. This team’s offense is predicated on finding exactly those shots and hitting them.
If the Americans lose to France, it won’t be a referendum on anything except the power of the NBA. The past three league MVPs are Europeans. Doncic has only one NBA veteran beside him and still can win a medal.
Yes, Canada freaked out when it lost hockey gold in 1988 and 2006. It also recognized that the Swedes and Czechs had used the NHL to learn and then enrich the game.
Win or lose, Team USA deserves the back-home ovations it never will get. It not only wore the colors, it soaked them with sweat.