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In a game that involved 12 lead changes and 12 ties, France snapped USA's 58-game winning streak (non-exhibition games) in international games as they inflicted an 89-79 defeat on the Americans in the quarterfinals of 2019 FIBA World Cup.
In what followed a rather dull first period with both teams scoring just 18 points on 19 possessions, the French went on a formidable 18-8 run of their own to cement a comfortable cushion at half-time.
The eventual defeat meant that the Americans - made up entirely of NBA players - won't be able to bag a third straight FIBA gold medal. Moreover, this will only be the second time in the 10 editions of the tournament that USA will finish without any medal for that matter.
Coach Pop and his USA squad will meet Jokic and Serbia in a 5th to 8th place classification game with the 5th place of the tournament up for grabs. Meanwhile, France advance to meet Argentina in the semis.
Let's skim through a bunch of prominent takeaways from this major upset.
#1 The lack of international experience sinks Team USA's World Cup hopes
As is already known, this was clearly not the best squad that the Americans could have fielded. For all it's worth, the roster of 12 players was finalized when Kyle Kuzma withdrew, leaving Coach Pop with no room for choice, but to roll with what he had. And when Tatum went down in just the second game of the tournament, the date of USA's inevitable elimination shifted even closer.
With no apparent disrespect to the skill level of players on this team, this hastily-put collection of individual talents never looked worthy of a gold medal. Kemba Walker and Khris Middleton are legit NBA All-Stars, Joe Harris is a reigning three-point shooting contest winner, while Donovan Mitchell's scoring abilities are unquestionable. Yet, this happened to be the group to lay waste to Americans' streak of five straight major tournament titles.
Right from the exhibition loss against Australia to the OT scare against Turkey, Team USA exhibited a glaring lack of international playing experience, which was bound to prove lethal were they to came up against the big dogs. And that is exactly the kind of threat that France posed, only a bit too earlier in the knockouts than the Americans would have expected.
#2 The FIBA World Cup unearths a dynamic never-before-seen NBA duo in Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier
The Orlando Magic guard and the Utah Jazz center have formed a rather unforeseen combo that has taken the basketball world by storm. While Fournier is averaging a team-high 21 points per game on 45% shooting, Rudy Gobert has been a force on both ends of the floor. The seven-footer is posting a near double-double average of 12.7 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, along with a tournament-best average of 2.3 blocks.
Against the United States, both played a combined total of 66 minutes, which incorporated two notable rejections by Gobert in the dying minutes. Fournier finished with 22 points - including 4 three-pointers - while Gobert posted a monster stat line of 21 points, 16 boards, and 3 blocks.
Though he was facing his Utah teammate Donovan Mitchell, Gobert did not look like he missed his presence by his side. Evan Fournier's abilities to space the floor with his shooting has really helped Gobert's dominance inside the paint throughout the tourney so far.
#3 The Americans had a disappointing shooting night from all across the floor as the stars struggled to score
While it was never a one-sided affair, the Americans shot a miserable 4-for-11 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter - including Marcus Smart and Kemba Walker missing a couple of them each in the final minutes of the game - to make it easier for France to inch away with a win. The defending world champs made 14-of-21 free-throws in the game, making it the clear difference between the winner and the loser
As a unit, the United States Men's Basketball Team shot an ordinary 29-of-65 from the field while also missing 13 of their attempted 20 three-pointers. Donovan Mitchell dropped a team-high total of 29 points (on 23 shots) as no other player could score more than 11 points.
Kemba Walker, who had been leading the scoring for Team USA so far, ended up with an uneventful night of 10 points on a disappointing 2-of-9 conversion from the field.
