FRA - French need to learn lessons from defeat, Bergeaud says
ATHENS (FIBA World Championship) - France coach Claude Bergeaud hopes Wednesday's 70-56 defeat to Greece in the Acropolis Tournament serves as a wake-up call to his team.
Les Bleus, who have excellent players like Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and Florent Pietrus - just to name a few - started off well with the EuroBasket 2005 champions but collapsed in the third quarter.
Bergeaud’s side found themselves down by 20 points (66-46) near the end of the fourth period before a late rally brought some respectability to the scoreline as Parker led all scorers with 20 points.
It was Les Bleus’ first loss in seven games - they had previously clinched wins over Switzerland, Senegal, Lithuania, China, Italy and Croatia - and brought back memories of their defeat to the Greeks in the semi-finals of last year’s EuroBasket.
Bergeaud was far from downbeat at the result but nonetheless hopes his players learn some lessons from the contest ahead of the FIBA World Championship, which starts on August 19.
"It was a very interesting game, quite an extraordinary one actually,” he said.
"If we'd lost that way against Croatia, that would have annoyed me. But against a fully fit Greek side, not at all.
"They are one of the best teams in the world. They played extraordinarily well and have one of the toughest defenses around.
"This match showed that when we are under a lot of pressure, we lose the ability to do the basics.
"We needed a game like that and we'll need more of them in the near future to figure out how we react.
"It's good to experience that now. My guys are upset, they are gutted to have lost.
"But we have not yet got the necessary physical or mental strength to hold on for 40 minutes. And we knew it."
France will now travel to Berlin to face Italy, Germany or Turkey in another warm-up event for Japan.
Bergeaud should then announce his final 12-man squad before taking his team to China from August 12 to 15.
Les Bleus, who will have played a total of 12 preparation games before the start of the FIBA World Championship, are in Group A along with Argentina, Lebanon, Nigeria, Serbia & Montenegro and Venezuela.
PA Sport
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