Spain, a day without end • Basketball USA

EuroBasket – France fell to Spain again. However, as in 2015, it was a golden opportunity to turn the tide.

Looking at the results of the latest editions of Eurobasket, we can’t help but imagine France as the new master of Europe. Since 2013 and the first major titles of French basketball, if we exclude the failure of 2017, 2015 and 2022 were two golden opportunities to collapse the Spanish house and take over. In true form… But that didn’t happen.

If it is traditionally German in football, realism is definitely Spanish for the orange ball!

2015 the day afteran unforgettable victory at the World Cupamong the Spanish, there was the possibility of taking power, at home, in Lille. On the floor, this explosive mix of three great generations, with the last dance “81-82-83” (Parker, Diav, Pietrus, Gelabale), the coming of age “87-88” (De Kolo, Batum…) and the emergence of a new wave “91 -92” embodied by Evan Fournier and Rudy Gober. Obviously, we had a fantastic team and a unique opportunity to beat the Spanish curse. At home. once and for all…

More defeat in the semi-finals (in overtime against Pau Gasol’s 40 points) was a trauma. A terribly frustrating setback for many reasons, especially tactical ones. On the website that follows the event, this match remains one of my most painful memories to this day.

The wound barely closed. And with good reason…

Huanch’s heat stroke

Seven years later, with the team assembled in a hurry and the preparatory phase reduced to a minimum before the European Championship in one of the most difficult phases in history, the defeat of the Blues (in the final) was not disputed. Of course, frustration remains the dominant feeling, but the collective superiority of the Spaniards left no doubt.

In a good place from start to finish, apart from this end of the first half and the only French highlight, the Iberian players respected their game plan to the end, based on a lot of defensive pressure and systems seriously deployed in attack. Masterfully led by Don Sergio Scariola, who stacks titles in his trophy cabinet with a total of four gold medals at the Euros plus another at the last World Championship (plus two Olympic), the Spaniards were collectively aligned, and some came to the aid of others from the first actions, for example when Rudy Gobert was looking for Guerschon Iabusele in a “high post, low post” relationship that resulted in a turnover, the first of a long series.

Without any particular tactical innovation, but with a simply sound playing base rich in fundamentals, La Roja once again reddened the French backside.

A display of high-level basketball marked by the hot iron hot shooting of Juancho Hernangomez (27 points on 7/9 on 3-pointers), Bo Cruz who was unfortunately larger than life yesterday!

Without discipline, talent is nothing

Just finals morning, I thought it was for us (like 2015, you could say). In terms of sheer talent, with Gober and Fournier as leaders, and Jabusele and Hertel as lieutenants, the Blues looked above it. And if we look at the team on a case-by-case basis, the French team did have more NBA players (4 vs. 3) and more Euroleague players (5 vs. 2) than Spain. Dirk Nowitzki himself agreed with me…

But talent is of no use if it is not framed by discipline and rigor. And patience too…

In the absence of individual talents, at least on paper, and especially in full transition after the golden period of the Gasol brothers, Navarre or even Rodriguez and the rest of Calderon, Spain passed the rounds one after the other, without batting an eyelid, standing together with its academy game, the best on the continent . So, almost twenty years!

Stray bullets killed us

Vincent Collet predicted it. And like him, you didn’t have to be a soothsayer to know that the Blues’ pesky habit of losing balloons by the carload would eventually outwit them.

With more than 17 turnovers per match, including 19 in the final, the French team shot themselves in the foot. This time right into the big toe. Because on the other hand, Spain made sure they didn’t run out of ammunition with just 9 wasted shots, capitalizing on French mistakes to score a whopping 35 points (compared to 7 for France). Anyway, those damn stray bullets killed us!

And if the Blues wasted so much, it’s because they obviously didn’t have the ease and comfort of the Spanish collective, used to long systems and a smooth passing game. On the contrary, we were treated to some of the worst offensive play by the French troops who, for my taste, found themselves on a slippery slope, that “all NBA” with the caricature play, the screen in the middle of the court. and playing in often sterile isolation…

How frustrating it is to see the Blues grind their teeth, possession after possession, on the wall the Spaniards have built inside. The latter did not necessarily have to make too much defensive effort to regain their skin, as the Blues, impatient and sometimes completely naive, tried phoned passes or crosses, always very dangerous. Alone in creation, Ertel and Fournier did not find the baton, except Eli Okobo who had the best game in the final after a more than complicated competition on a personal level.

Inner emptiness

Lacking their own attacking ammunition, France were also never able to run and therefore take advantage of their superior athleticism. And yes: there are no loose balls in the clean and efficient game of the Spaniards and therefore no runs, and therefore no easy points in the fast game. In contrast, we will long remember this basket in transition from the naturalized leader, Lorenzo Braun, who faced three (or even four) soft-kneed Frenchmen in a defensive retreat at the end of the match…

In the same way, we didn’t see our inside sector on Sunday night against the Hernangomez siblings. How is this possible when it was the main factor in our good performance at the last Olympics (and the prestigious victory against the Americans) and at this Euro? The answer is twofold: on the one hand, the Blues did not emphasize this point enough, with only 4 attempts in total for the Gobert-Poirier-Fall trio. We can talk about Spain’s defense, the lack of offensive talent, but it’s also the obvious lack of confidence in our insides who find themselves messing with each other. Result: 9 rounds lost in traffic by the French interior sector.

Heading regardless, instead of raising their head and serving to an unmarked teammate after sorting out the defense, the “bigs” simply thwarted, like Poirier having the ball stripped by three Spaniards in a coat or Gobert sending a pass to the cameraman. at the end of the game. It is by no means a coincidence that the only good pass by the French was matched by short shots from the center of Jabusele, which his teammates served well outside the circle…

Cursed Spanish “marmot”

Beaten fair and square in a final dominated by composure and Spain’s game plan, the Blues must have had their rear skin a little red. But they have nothing to be ashamed of with their overall performance at the Euros.

If the disappointment will necessarily take a few days to wash away completely, this new French medal-winning team can still be congratulated for their mental resources and consistency at the highest level, even without leaders like De Colle and Batum. Before the competition, and even during it, with two “miracles” in the eighth and then in the fourth, few watched the video as she finished so high.

Behind their two leaders Gobert and Fournier, who admitted that they do not necessarily feel concerned about the historic “rivalry” with Spain and never hide their ambitions, it will now be a question for the Blues to retain the (new) lessons of this unfortunate end.

To shake off the blow of this cursed Spanish “groundhog” that keeps coming to haunt our nights and spoil our awakenings…

Photo: FIBA