PARIS (France) - France knew if they wanted to beat the world champions Germany and return to the Olympics Gold Medal Game they would need to stop Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner.
Let's just say: Misson accomplished.
The French defense bottled up Germany's two superstars to register a 73-69 victory in the Semi-Finals to lock up at least their fourth silver medal.
Coach Vincent Collet has been preaching for weeks that the only path to the medals for his team was to have the best defense in the tournament.
Well, what they did to Germany in Bercy, nobody has been able to do for the past 2 years.
They broke the rhythm, reduced the confidence, and stopped the formidable machine that had not lost a game in major FIBA events since the EuroBasket 2022 semi-final—13 wins in a row.
The German captain Schroder ended up scoring 18 points but he needed 18 attempts. He also dished out just 4 assists - 4.8 fewer than his average of 8.8 assists per game. And Wagner scored 10 points after both he and Schroder torched the French with 26 points in the final group stage game. The NBA duo went scoreless in the critical second quarter when France came back after so-so start of the game.
That period was the foundation for the French, holding the Germans to just eight points - the lowest-scoring quarter for the world champs in the Olympics. Germany had scored 25 in the first. The world champions also committed seven turnovers that quarter - coming into the game after an Olympics fewest 10.0 turnovers per game.
Germany's previous lowest scoring quarter was when they managed only 11 points in the first quarter against Greece in the Quarter-Finals. However, Schroder sparked the world champions to a 65-42 scoreline over the final three quarters.
But the France game was just the opposite as Germany had their best quarter in the first 10 minutes with a 25-18 lead and totaled just 44 the rest of the way.
France's tremendous energy on defense - assisted by the boisterous Bercy Arena crowd - resulted in 15 turnovers in the game. And Les Bleus used those miscues excellently with a 20-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
And Germany were held to just 40.0 percent shooting for the game.
The defense against Germany was a continuation of what Vincent Collet's team put together in the Quarter-Finals against Canada. France conceded only 73 points against the high-scoring Canadians and held them to just 37.9 percent shooting.
A big key to the France defense was the veteran Nicolas Batum. The 35-year-old worked relentlessly in the victory over Canada defending the athletic wings of the Americas side, and Batum stepped up again against the Germans.
FIBA