Serbia's Nikola Jokic, right, and Australia'a Duop Reath during a quarter-final game at the Paris Olympics, on Aug. 6.Michael Conroy/The Associated Press
France had an ugly couple of days following its group-stage finale loss to Germany.
It turned them into possibly its prettiest performances of the Olympic tournament to far.
Guerschon Yabusele scored 22 points after being inserted into the starting lineup, Victor Wembanyama had 12 rebounds and France beat Canada 82-73 on Tuesday to advance to its second straight men’s Olympic basketball semi-final. Wembanyama finished with seven points, five assists, three steals and a block.
Isaia Cordinier added 20 points for France, which is looking to add to its medal haul after winning silver in the Tokyo Games in 2021. It will meet Germany, a winner over Greece, on Thursday.
“We had a lot of time to think, to fix things, and the whole team was just so dedicated to fixing everything,” Wembanyama said. “Now we’ve got a good base to build on for the final phase of the tournament.”
French coach Vincent Collet pulled four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and Evan Fournier from the starting lineup. Gobert played just four minutes after suffering an unspecified injury in practice. Fournier didn’t see the court until late in the first quarter. His benching came after Collet took issue with some critical comments by Fournier after the Germany loss.
Fournier finished with 15 points, saying afterward there is no ongoing issue with his coach.
“When you have guys that have the same goal, that are being competitive and trying to win, it’s pressure,” Fournier said. “It’s part of the game. … You just to have to handle stuff like that. And that’s what we did there.”
Wembanyama, Yabusele, Cordinier, Nicolas Batum and Frank Ntilikina started Tuesday. The group gave the team an energy boost, with France taking a 23-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Canada cut what had been 19-point second-half lead for France to 71-66 with less than three minutes to go. But the rally stalled there.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada with 27 points, and RJ Barrett added 16. Canada has not reached the Olympic final four since 1984.
“The start obviously put us in a hole,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think we won the rest of the game after the start. But when you start like that, it’s hard play against any team.”
With Canada limiting Wembanyama’s touches, Yabusele and Cordinier carried the offensive load for France.
France took an 11-point lead into the fourth, when Wembanyama, Gobert and Batum combined for just three points.
Canada cut the deficit to 71-66 on a steal and dunk by Lu Dort.
It was 73-66 with a little more than a minute to play when Fournier connected on a desperation heave from just inside the half-court line with the shot clock winding down.
Serbia 95, Australia 90, OT
Nikola Jokic had 21 points and 14 rebounds, and Serbia surged back to beat Australia in overtime to reach the semi-finals.
Bogdan Bogdanovic added 17 for points for Serbia, which rallied from a 24-point first-half deficit to set up a meeting with either the U.S. or Brazil.
Serbia is aiming for its first Olympic medal since the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, where it took silver. That was the first Olympics for a then 21-year-old Jokic.
Bogdanovic acknowledged doubting whether they’d complete the comeback.
“Honestly, we didn’t keep cool,” Bogdanovic said. “But we knew we were down and we needed to find some momentum and rhythm. … They had the whole momentum of the game. As I said, this is the biggest pressure of the tournament. Quarter-finals. You know if you lose, you’re out.”
Patty Mills had 26 points – but just six after halftime – for Australia, which won the Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo three years ago. Josh Giddey added 25 points.
“I thought we threw everything at them,” Mills said. “We’re playing against world-class individuals. World-class teams. World-class coaches. And this is why you play international basketball. It’s a different sport than any other league around the world. It brings the best out of everyone.”
Jokic put Serbia on top 91-90 with just over a minute left in overtime. Australia’s Jack McVeigh then misfired on its next possession. Serbia got the ball back to Jokic, who converted again.
Australia attempted to get the ball into Mills on the inbounds, but it was knocked away and stolen by Serbia.
Serbia stormed back in the third quarter and retook the lead late, 61-60, on a jumper by Bogdanovic. The basket capped a 40-14 scoring run.
Serbia led 67-65 entering the fourth and was up 81-78 when Giddey hit a short jumper to cut the margin to a point with just over a minute to play in regulation.
Australia rebounded a Bogdanovic miss, but Mills misfired on the other end. Australia forced a Vasilije Micic error, but he was fouled on the rebound with 9.8 seconds left. He then connected on 1 of 2 free throws.
Australia got the ball into Mills, who lost his dribble, gathered and hit a fallaway jumper to send the game to an extra frame.
Germany 76, Greece 63
Franz Wagner scored 18 points and Germany overcame a sluggish start to beat Greece and advance to the semi-finals for the first time.
Dennis Schroder added 13 points and eight assists for the reigning World Cup champions, who will face the winner of France and Canada on Thursday. Germany’s previous best finish at the Olympics was seventh place in 1992.
Germany is unbeaten at the Paris Games after going 3-0 in the group stage.
“I think everybody on the team knows that we’ve got a special group, and I want to get the most out of this,” Wagner said.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 22 points for Greece, which was denied its first semi-finals berth in Antetokounmpo’s first Olympics appearance.
Greece had 15 turnovers, leading to 20 points for Germany.
Wagner entered the quarter-finals averaging a team-high 22 points per game but struggled to get going.
Greece led by 12 at one point –- the first time Germany had trailed by 10 or more points in the tournament. But Germany settled in and used a big third quarter to take a seven-point lead into the fourth. Germany started the final period on a 13-5 run to increase its lead to 72-57 with 1:50 remaining.