France stay positive after the final loss: 'We are proud' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

The USA put an end to the French winning streak by beating them in the Olympic finals. However, France gave everything they had and were happy with the performance in the tournament.

Player of the Game EFF 26 Kevin Durant Points 29 Accuracy 9-18 Rebounds 6 Assists 3

The hero who lifted his team to the final, Nicolas Batum, expressed his pride after the game: "Details cost us the game for sure. I am proud as captain of my team - of the coaching staff and the players. We did a good job and we represented the country and tried to get the gold. Every guy came in and gave 100 percent. We tried to show the people back home that we are a good team. This is just the beginning for French basketball. We have had some consistent results in these recent years and we have some great young guys coming up. These can be heady days for us and the future of French basketball is bright."

Nando De Colo, who scored 12 points and dished out 7 assists, talked about the difficulties of guarding KD: "Kevin Durant is amazing. You put a big on him, he's able to drive. You put a small guy on him and he's able to shoot over him. All my teammates did their best, but it is really difficult. Right now, for sure, we got some emotions where it's not easy for us. But we are proud, I'm sure tonight it will feel great," he ended on a high note.

French head coach Vincent Collet told reporters that the game came down to small details: "Our goal was to push them as far as possible in this game. Unfortunately, we did a couple of mistakes at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter. We were turning it over a few times because we changed the way we played a little bit. We were insisting a lot on the inside game and suddenly we started dribbling the ball and driving to find the kick. We did it two or three times well, but you know there will be some turnovers and against the USA, that is what hurt us the most and denied us."

The top scorer for France, Rudy Gobert, stressed the importance of missed free throws and turnovers: "We knew that obviously, they are a very talented team with great players. All those guys like KD and Dame are going to make shots that nobody can guard at times. But when you give up those types of turnovers and miss the free throws, those are the kind of details when you shoot yourself in the foot. When we did this, they made it a 12-14 point lead right away, and then you have to work to grind your way back to make it a close game, which we did and we never gave up, but we were short in the end."

Thank you for reading us! We have even more content for you.