Nicolas Batum played tough on the defensive end

    Nicolas Batum had another crucial block to add to his Olympic resume. He's an all-time great at it.

    PARIS (France) - Nicolas Batum has a flair for the dramatic in terms of blocks at the Olympics and his latest blocked shot helped France reach the 2024 Paris Semi-Finals and moved the veteran into a tie for fifth place in the all-time leaderboard.

    Check the full game report:

    Doing it the French way: Hosts eliminate unbeaten Canada

    The 35-year-old contributed 0 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block in 33 minutes in France's 82-73 win over Canada in the Quarter-Finals.

    With France leading 63-55 with 7 minutes left in the game though Batum swatted Canada star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's layup attempt. And the Americas side could not get closer than 5 points the rest of the way.

    Nicolas Batum's block on Klemen Prepelic saved France in the Semi-Finals

    Batum, of course, made his most famous block at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, batting away a layup attempt by Klemen Prepelic in the waning seconds of the Semi-Finals.

    Batum moved into a tie for fifth place with 21 blocks along with Andres Nocioni of Argentina and Yi Jianlian of China.

    Most blocks all-time at the Olympics

    Rank

    Player

    Team

    Blocks

    1

    Pau Gasol

    Spain

    47

    2

    Andrei Kirilenko

    Russia

    35

    3

    Rudy Gobert*

    France

    26

    -

    Yao Ming

    China

    26

    5

    Nicolas Batum*

    France

    21

    -

    Andres Nocioni

    Argentina

    21

    -

    Yi Jianlian

    China

    21

    8

    Andrew Bogut

    Australia

    19

    9

    Hamed EHaddadi

    Iran

    18

    10

    Luis Scola

    Argentina

    17

    -

    Salah Mejri

    Tunisia

    17

    *Active players

    The block was introduced as a statistic for the Olympics in 2000.

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