We are almost at the end of The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris. With that comes the gold medal games in basketball. It has been an extremely fun two-plus weeks. But with the end in sight, we have the gold medal games. First up is the match on the men’s side between France and Team USA.
2024 Paris Olympics Gold Medal Game Preview
Men’s Gold Medal Match
France vs. USA
A rematch for the ages. During the Tokyo Games the US and France met twice: France won in the group stage but Team USA got the last laugh in the gold medal game. Now, for the second straight Olympics, the two will pay for the gold medal. This time France has revenge on its minds and is in front of its home fans at Bercy Arena in Paris. When playing at its full potential, Les Bleus can absolutely win this game. The problem, however, is that they don’t always do that. That’s why, if you look at the team stats for the tournament, it would look like France can’t beat the US. But they can. They played well against Canada in the quarterfinals, and after the first quarter also played well against the reigning World Cup Champions Germany in the semis. Overall in the tournament France has been fairly mediocre as a team statistically. But that is due to their up-and-down play. At its best France is one of the best teams in the world.
Unsurprisingly Victor Wembanyama has been great. He leads all players with 2.2 steals and 2.0 blocks per game and is second in rebounding with 10.2 RPG. To go along with that he is top 10 in efficiency and is averaging 13.8 PPG. The “Dancing Bear” Guerschon Yabusele (a former Boston Celtic) has played great in the last two games and is on a roll. Isaia Cordinier is shooting 54.3% from the field in this tournament. Like the Dancing Bear, Isaïa was also really good in France’s last two games.
Team USA was pretty much dominated by Serbia in the semifinals for the first three quarters. The team then finally got things going in the fourth quarter despite starting it being down by 15 points. That, along with extremely poor play by Serbia, enabled them to come back and win the game. In the tournament overall, the US leads or is in second in almost every statistical category. Among those is being the only team averaging over 100 points per game, shooting almost 60% from the field, and having an insane efficiency rating of 139.2 per game. The only thing it has been bad at is free throw shooting, just like France. The team is shooting just 75.9% from the line.
While Team USA has gotten significant contributions from a number of players, this is LeBron James‘ team. He is tied for the lead in the tournament with 8.2 assists per game. He is also 7th in rebounds per game with 7 per game, and is fifth in shooting percentage with 67.2%. Then on top of all of that he’s averaging 14.2 PPG. Steph Curry was really the only thing keeping the team together against Serbia. He had 38 points 12-of-19 shooting along with 8 rebounds in the semis. Kevin Durant has been moving up the all-time American Olympic scoring list and is now in first, and has played really well off the bench. Also, Saturday is 8/10/24—all three of Kobe Bryant‘s numbers.
On paper and with how things are going the US should beat France. But it’s far from a sure thing. France wants to win their first ever Olympic gold medal in men’s basketball, and it wants to do so in front of its home fans in Paris. Les Bleus have won silver three times previously, and look to finally get over the hump. Team USA goes for gold in what would be Team USA’s fifth straight gold medal. It could also be the last hurrah for their dominance over the Olympics. But who will get that coveted Olympic gold medal? We’ll just have to wait and see. It should be a great game.
