France had a new-look starting lineup in its men's Olympic basketball quarterfinal matchup against Canada on Tuesday, and it worked out, as the French advanced to the semifinals thanks to an 82-73 win over the Canadians.
Facing a ton of pressure in front of a raucous home crowd in Paris, NBA veterans Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier were not in the starting lineup against the Canadians.
After the game, Gobert told USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt that he injured his left ring finger in practice on Sunday and had surgery Monday, which limited his playing time on Tuesday.
However, France's head coach Vincent Collet gave a conflicting report after the game. He told the Washington Post's Ben Golliver that while Gobert did have a finger injury, "it was not a surgery" and the lineup was largely based on matchups with the smaller Canadians.
"Small ball," Collet said to Golliver of the new-look starting fine. "I wanted (Victor Wembanyama) to start at position five, Yabusele at position four."
Gobert, the reigning defensive player of the year in the NBA, has been a staple on the French team for the past decade. But with seven-foot-four phenom Wembanyama now on the squad and patrolling the paint, France still had an intimidating presence even with Gobert out of the lineup.
The smaller, quicker French lineup also looked great in Tuesday's quarterfinal, especially to start, as France blitzed the favoured Canadians in the first quarter and sprinted out to a 23-10 lead. A lead it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.
Gobert didn't play a single second in the opening 10 minutes. He finally checked into the game 2:19 into the second quarter, but was subbed back out after just two minutes of action when he appeared to struggle with Canada's smaller, quicker lineup.
He played just 3:41 over the four quarters and finished with one rebound.
The Minnesota Timberwolves centre entered Tuesday's game against Canada averaging 6.0 points and 6.3 rebounds in 21.2 minutes per game over France's first three group-stage games.
Fournier ended up being a key contributor for France off the bench, as the veteran added 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting, which included a couple of key threes down the stretch.
France will now take on Germany in the semifinals on Thursday with a trip to the gold-medal game on the line.
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