Paris Olympics men’s basketball: France beats Canada to advance to semifinals; Serbia, Germany also through to semis

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It was a busy day on the basketball front ahead of the U.S. men’s matchup with Brazil in the quarterfinals, with host country France defeating Canada, Serbia beating Australia and Germany coming back against Greece to reach the semifinals.

France ekes out win over Canada

It wasn’t pretty at times, but France will be advancing to the semis after an 82-73 win over Canada on Tuesday.

The game could not have started worse for Canada. At one point, they had just two baskets and seven turnovers, while France led them 19-5. But as we saw in the Serbia-Australia and Greece-Germany games, early leads can disappear relatively quickly. Even though Canada had narrowed France’s lead to just 10 midway through the second quarter, they went into halftime down 45-29.

Canada was able to come out of the half strong, outscoring France 21-16 in the third period, and never let France build a comfortable lead, even getting within five with just over four minutes to play. But France stayed aggressive, and Evan Fournier hit a dagger 3-pointer with just under a minute to go to put France up by 10.

Guershon Yabusele led France’s with 22 points, Isaia Cordinier added 20 and Fournier finished with 15. Victor Wembanyama finished with 5 points and 12 rebounds. Shai Gilgeous Alexander put Canada on his back with a 27-point effort, but RJ Barret (16 points) and company didn’t provide enough help there.

Serbia, Nikola Jokic erase 24-point deficit to defeat Australia

Serbia is moving on to the medal round after a tight matchup against Australia. Behind a fabulous performance from Nikola Jokic (21 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists), Serbia muscled its way back from a huge second quarter deficit to defeat a Jekyll and Hyde Australia team 95-90.

The first quarter was relatively uneventful, but Australia started to amp up their game near the end of the quarter. After Jokic sunk a 2-pointer to elevate Serbia’s score to 17, just two points short of Australia’s 19, the two teams wouldn’t be that close again for nearly two quarters. Australia, led by FIBA legend Patty Mills (who is fifth on the all-time list of Olympic points scored) built up a 24-point lead over Serbia that seemed insurmountable.

But Australia started to fall apart in the third, vomiting up a number of ill-timed turnovers, and Serbia began performing much better. With less than four minutes left in the third quarter, Serbia took its first lead since it was 7-6 in the first quarter. By the end of the third, Serbia had outscored Australia 25-11 in the quarter.

The final quarter was the most competitive of the game. Both teams stayed right with each other until the very end. Down 82-80 with 9.8 seconds left, FIBA Patty got the ball for Australia and sunk a game-tying two-pointer to force overtime and give him a stunning 26 points on the day. With under a minute left in the five-minute overtime period, Jokic swished a two pointer to take a 93-90 lead, and another turnover from Australia locked down the win for Serbia.

Germany makes comeback against Greece to advance to medal round

Germany overcame a rough first quarter to take down Greece 76-63 in the Olympic quarterfinals of the men’s basketball tournament.

Greece star Giannis Antetokounmpo had 22 points, but that wasn’t enough for the Greeks to put up a second-half challenge against the defending FIBA World Cup champions.

Greece jumped out to a 16-4 lead early in the first quarter as Germany got off to a poor shooting start. But in the second quarter the Deutschland hoopers tightened up their perimeter defense and remembered how to shoot. They ate into Greece’s lead, outscoring them 25-15 in the second quarter and managing to tie the score 36-36 at halftime. From there, Germany was able to steadily build a lead that rivaled the one Greece had on them early in the game while Greece struggled to get the ball through the basket.

The standout stars for Germany were Franz Wagner (18 points, three rebounds, two assists) and Dennis Schroder (13 points, eight rebounds). Both made a number of critical plays, but the most memorable was the late-game dagger Schroder hit from downtown to give Germany a 15-point lead, their biggest of the day.

That basket sealed the deal for Germany, which now moves on to the medal round for the first time in the country’s history.