The dream match will indeed take place. Saturday, August 10, from 9:30 p.m., Victor Wembanyama’s French team faces the Everest of basketball: the United States and its constellations of stars, ranging from LeBron James to Stephen Curry, including Kevin Durant and Joel Embiid. A clash for Olympic gold, which the Americans have not let slip since 2004 in Athens, and which they have won 16 times out of 20.
Reproduce the feat. Defeating the United States is something the Blues know how to do. They have achieved this feat twice in recent years, first in the quarter-finals of the 2019 World Cup (89-79), before doing it again in the first round of the 2021 Olympics (83-76). France then became the first nation to string together two victories against the United States, who ended this streak in the final of the same Olympic tournament.
An Olympic classic. For the fourth time in history after London 1948, Sydney 2000 and Tokyo 2021, the final of the men’s basketball tournament pits the United States against the French team. Unsurprisingly, the Blues have lost the previous three, even if they only lost by five points in 2021 (87-82)… This final will also be the ninth meeting between the two countries at the Olympic Games, which makes the United States the most recurring opponent of the Blues in the competition.
The United States weakened. Facing Serbia in the semi-final, the American stars came close to elimination. After 37 minutes of play, the United States were even led by 17 points by Nikola Jokic’s Serbians. But Team USA was able to count on one man: Stephen Curry, author of 36 points and the great architect of the turnaround in the last quarter (95-91 victory).