Team USA’s men’s basketball team tips off its Summer Games with a disappointing 83-76 loss to France in the preliminary group stage of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
It marks the United States’ first loss in group play since 2004 when it fell to both Puerto Rico and Lithuania. It’s also the second straight to France in international play, as the French also prevailed in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, though it’s the first time the U.S. has ever lost to France in Olympic play.
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Jrue Holiday led Team USA with 18 points in the loss. Evan Fournier finished with a team-high 28 points for France, which went on a dominant run to close out the fourth quarter.
Every team within a group faces the other three teams for a total of three games. The teams finishing in first and second place from each group will advance into the quarterfinals along with the two best third-place teams overall.
The United States, whose 25-game winning streak ended with the loss to France, will take the court next against Iran on Wednesday.
France closed the game on a 16-2 run to beat the Americans 83-76 in the Tokyo Games. Evan Fournier’s 3-pointer off a broken play with just under a minute left put France ahead for good, as the Americans simply fell apart in the final minutes.
“They are better individually,” Fournier said of the Americans, “but they can be beaten as a team.”
“I think that’s a little bit of hubris if you think the Americans are supposed to just roll out the balls and win,” U.S. coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’ve got to work for it just like everybody else. And for those 40 minutes, they played better than we did.”
The Americans lost for only the sixth time in 144 games at the Olympics all-time, and fell to 53-4 in the Olympics with NBA players on the roster. The 2004 team at the Athens Games lost the other three, and won bronze. Every other U.S. team in the era that started with the “Dream Team” in 1992 won the gold and this one still can — but it’s far from a certainty.
“When you lose a game, you’re not surprised,” Popovich said. “You’re disappointed.”
Rudy Gobert scored 14 and Nando de Colo had 13 for France. While Bam Adebayo had 12, Damian Lillard 11 and Kevin Durant had 10 for the Americans — who are just 2-3 in their games this summer, the first four of them exhibitions in Las Vegas that weren’t supposed to mean much.
Durant moved into outright possession of the No. 4 spot on the U.S. men’s all-time Olympic appearances list. He’s now played in 17 games, behind only Carmelo Anthony (31), LeBron James (24) and David Robinson (24). There are 15 players with 16 Olympic appearances.
