Victor Wembanyama explained France's performance vs. Canada, reflected on his own contribution and referred to his team's dominance in the paint.
Victor Wembanyama scored 7 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished out 5 assists in 27 minutes as France held Canada off (82-73) and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics.
| Player of the Game | |
|
EFF
22
|
| Isaia Cordinier | |
| Points | 20 |
| Accuracy | 6-10 |
| Rebounds | 3 |
| Assists | 1 |
Les Bleus created a considerable 16-point distance (45-29) from their opponents in the first half and never looked back, despite Canada's efforts to get back to contention.
Despite the fact that only six players scored from the winning side, Wembanyama thinks that all 10 players who appeared on the court contributed to the outcome.
"The game plan was definitely to involve the whole team," he told the media. "I think we had close to 20 assists. So that's good. And on my side, [the goal] was to not force things and take the shots that were open and given to me."
Wemby went on to stress that France had "a solid 40 minutes."
"I think if I made my shots, we would have won the game earlier," he reflected. "I'm glad we got the win, and it just shows that we can be much better."
Following the heavy loss to Germany in the first stage, Evan Fournier and coach Vincent Collet had an altercation through the media. The player jabbed at the team's strategic plan, and the tactician responded by calling Fournier's statements 'unacceptable.'
When the France-Canada game tipped off, neither Fournier nor Rudy Gobert were on the floor.
Victor Wembanyama didn't specify which factors led to the starting lineup change but emphasized that all French players had to realize their "roles and history."
"Even the direction we wanted to take," he said. And the fact that we had four days, we had a lot of a lot of time to think and to fix things and the whole team was just so dedicated. The team, the staff, and the players were just so dedicated to fixing everything."
"Now we got a good foundation to build on for the final phase of the tournament," he added, referring to the upcoming semifinal against Germany next Thursday.
The last question Wemby took was about France's dominance in the paint, where Les Bleus saw Guerschon Yabusele score 22 points and Mathias Lessort add 13 plus 5 rebounds.
Canada, on the other hand, had Dwight Powell and Khem Birch combine for 9 points and 14 rebounds.
"We got maybe the most dominant EuroLeague big man there with us," Wembanyama said of Lessort, who also made 9 of his 14 free throws.
"So it would be a mistake not to use it, especially against a team like this."
