On August 7, Beijing time, the men's basketball knockout round of the Paris Olympics continued, and the 1/4 final focused on the host France against Canada. Alexander scored 27 points, Murray was in a slump and Canada was eliminated; The hosts changed their formation perfectly, and France reached the last four to face Germany.
Substitute Gobert, France changed the formation to achieve miraculous results, the whole team was in a hot state to play a smooth attack and defense, Cordinier, who started the game, scored 10 points alone to become a surprise soldier, and a small wave of 16-5 in the opening game directly stopped the opponent. Canada looked unprepared and made a steady stream of simple errors, and Murray's mid-range shot helped his team break a five-minute athletic scoring drought and trail by 13 points at 10-23 in the first quarter.
France's tactics are quite clear, knowing that the opposite line is highly inferior, hitting the basket almost every round, even if they don't score, they are very likely to cause fouls, and they frequently stand on the free throw line to great effect. Canada's offense continued to be tough, with Alexander scoring 11 points in the first quarter but two punches and four hands, and the rest of his teammates were not playing as well as they were, trailing by 16 points at halftime 29-45.
Back in the second half, Canada's offensive handling improved slightly, reducing inefficient shots, strengthening the breakthrough and impacting the inside to create damage, and Alexander continued to fire and chase closely. France slowly experienced ups and downs during this period, with Yabsele and Cordinier playing in succession to help the team stabilize the rhythm, leading by 11 points at 61-50 in the third quarter.
In the final quarter, the referee repeatedly blew the whistle to make the process quite piecemeal, Dillon scored hard inside, and Barrett countered with an empty basket to chase down only five points in the remaining four minutes. After a timeout, Fournier hit a three-point shot to stop the bleeding, then pushed the transition to open again, and finally hit a long-range three-pointer to end the suspense, and France beat Canada 82-73 to reach the semifinals against new World Cup champions Germany.
Yabuselle 22 points and 5 boards, Cordinier 20 points, Fournier 15 points, Lesol 13 points, Wemban 7 points, 5 assists + 12 boards and 3 steals, France's change of formation is indeed very good, abandoning the two-tower lineup to maintain flexibility. Alexander had 27 points, Barrett had 16 and Murray had just seven points on 3-of-13 shooting, and he was in a really bad form.