The USA men’s basketball team moved to 3-0 and earned the top seed heading into the quarterfinals of the Olympics on Saturday with a blowout win against Puerto Rico, as they shook off a slow start thanks to a huge night from Anthony Edwards to cruise to a 19-point win.
With that performance, they moved ahead of Germany and Canada in point differential among the three undefeated teams in the group stage. While plenty of people expected the USA and Canada to be in that position, Germany going through their group undefeated, which included France, was a bit of a surprise — particularly with how dominant Germany was in beating the host nation. After the USA’s win over Puerto Rico, LeBron James was asked about Team USA’s path to a fifth straight gold, and he highlighted the many talented teams they’d have to face, via Sam Amick of The Athletic.
“There’s a lot of great teams right now,” he began. “Obviously Canada, Germany. I like the battle Greece has had. You know, Serbia, we had them in our group play. We know what they’re capable of. Australia advanced as well. Australia. So there’s a lot of great teams.”
Notably missing from that list was France, and when a French reporter asked about the host nation, LeBron noted their blowout loss to Germany left him unimpressed.
“Um, I’ve been impressed,” James said unconvincingly before changing course. “Um, you know, I wasn’t very impressed with their last game. I didn’t think they was ready for the physicality of Germany. But other than that, they’ve been playing some good ball.”
James isn’t wrong. This France team hasn’t looked all that impressive since their opening win over Brazil, needing a miraculous finish to avoid a loss to Japan and then getting smoked by Germany. If anything, LeBron was probably being kind saying they’ve played “good ball” other than the Germany game, considering how shaky they looked against Japan.
That said, the name of the game is making it to the knockout rounds and Victor Wembanyama is capable of being flat out unguardable. The question is whether France can provide their young star enough support, particularly in the backcourt. Their quarterfinal matchup with Canada figures to be a fascinating one, as it pits a France team with a dominant frontcourt and weak backcourt against a Canada team that’s built the exact opposite way.
