Olympic Basketball: Australia Upsets France

Olympic basketball is a incredible equalizer; playing for your country allows you to grow an extra few inches. There are upsets like Australia beating France in the opening match of the tournament in Rio.

It did not take long for the first upset of the men’s Olympic basketball tournament–day one, match one. Australia, ranked 11th in the world, played France, ranked fifth in the world.

France had such NBA stars as Rudy Gobert, Boris Diaw, Joffrey Lauvergne, Nicolas Batum and their evergreen champion, Tony Parker.

Australia had Patrick Mills, Joe Ingles, Matthew Dellavedova, Aron Baynes, Cameron Bairstow and big man Andrew Bogut. On paper the French should have beaten Australia by 10 points or more.

This was not the case, Australia ended up winning 87-66. France’s play was loose and disjointed, with their defense being nothing short of embarrassing. This is despite adding Gobert to the squad that won its qualifying tournament last month.

Who lets Bogut run the ball down the court before dishing it off for points? Who lets Bogut take the ball from outside the three point line and on an Ingles screen, dunk unchallenged by anyone. France were not on their defense.

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The Stifle Tower did have three blocks in his 25 minutes to go with seven rebounds and five points, but was outplayed by Bogut, who had 18 points in 22 minutes to go along with four rebounds, five assists and a blocked shot.

Among the guards, Parker took on his San Antonio Spurs teammate, Patty Mills. Fortunately for Australia, Mills outplayed Parker, scoring more points (21-18), giving out more assists (5-2) and having more steals (2-0).

Mills had something that Parker did not, a second guard who could take the pressure off in Dellavedova. The guard recently signed by the Milwaukee Bucks showed why they thought so highly of him.

In 26 minutes Dellavedova only scored four points, but it was his ability to find the open man for an easy shot was on full show; his 10 assists were only offset by one turnover.

France’s second-best player was Mickael Gelabele, who played three seasons in the NBA. Gelabele had 13 points and four rebounds in his 19 minutes.

Aug 6, 2016; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Australia center Andrew Bogut (6) dunks the ball against France during the second half in the men’s basketball group A preliminary round during the during the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Carioca Arena 1. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports /

The surprise story of the game was Baynes. In 24 minutes, Baynes had 14 points and eight rebounds, six of which were offensive, which set the tone for the game.

Baynes played excellent defense, backing up Bogut and allowed Australia to out-muscle France in the paint by a 50-22 margin.

As a team, Australia moved the ball better, with 29 assists to 12, and defended the ball better, stealing the ball 11 times to six. Australia also took advantage of French errors, scoring 21 points to seven for France off turnovers.

Lauvergne, Diaw and Batum were hardly factors for France, which really missed Evan Fournier, left off the team after the Olympic qualifiers so as not to disrupt the chemistry of the team.

Fournier is the future of French basketball and they could have used his perimeter game Saturday night.

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Next up Australia takes on Serbia in another massive challenge and France takes on China in a must-win game to keep its medal hopes alive.