Fournier, Batum and de Colo react to the exploit against Team USA!

Each precious in their own way, Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier and Nando De Colo were smiling after the historic success against Team USA. Here are their reactions, collected at the microphone of France Televisions.

Memorable. That’s the word to describe the performance of the Blues this Sunday, winners of Team USA 83 to 76. Something to delight a lucid Nicolas Batum at the final buzzer:

We know we had to make a better start than what we did in prep – it’s true that we weren’t very reassuring in the friendly matches. Against Team USA, we couldn’t afford a bad start. They got ahead because we allowed too many counterattacks and rebounds. We knew that in the second half, if we controlled that and that we played with our big ones in attack, since they were playing quite small, (we would have our chance). We respected the coaches’ plan and it’s a good victory for us tonight.

Are we sending a message to all the competition? No, we’re not going to think like that. We’ve made mistakes in the past, so it’s a won match, against a good team, of course, but we’re not going to ignite.

Same story with Nando De Colo, who was able to recover from a complicated first half to register big shots and compile 13 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists:

It’s not over, it’s just the beginning. We have another big game coming up, and it’s going to be just as important. If it was important to be reassured after the 3 defeats in preparation? Preparing for preparation is always complicated, especially with the health hazards of the moment. Tonight we were focused, we respected what we wanted to do on the pitch as much as possible, and it worked for us.

Evan Fournier, for his part, was necessarily on top after having delivered one of the best games of his career, 28 points and clutch shots:

I tried to be aggressive. As an NBA player, we know these guys who are in front of us, and we have to show the team how to attack them – not to back down, on the contrary. I think we did a good job, we stayed together when they did their run. It’s a great victory, but it’s still only a group match.

Our third quarter was decisive, and we knew we had to attack it hard. Americans are extremely physical, and they often have a lot of impact when they’re coolest, so that was really a focus for us. This victory will give us a boost of confidence because we had a difficult preparation with 3 games and 3 losses. It’s our first win this summer so it feels good, but like I said it’s only a group game. But we have very big ambitions.

Satisfaction with a job well done, but also humility, concentration and ambition: the cocktail seems ideal within Team France. Keep it up guys!