The basketball competition at the 2024 Olympic Games started on Saturday in Lille, France.
Olympics: France, Germany among Day 1 winners
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In the opening game of the 2024 Olympic Tournament, Australia beat Spain 92-80 in Group A action. Jock Landale, who played in the EuroLeague for Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade and Zalgiris Kaunas, starred with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, while Patty Mills scored 19 for Australia, which had five scorers in double figures. Spain's Santi Aldama was top scorer with 27 points, while Real Madrid's Sergio Llull scored 17 points on 5-of-15 three-point shooting.
Australia opened a double-digit lead after only 5 minutes of play and Josh Giddey strung together 8 points to keep Spain at bay. The Boomers opened a 31-17 lead early in the second, but Spain put together a 0-10 run capped by back-to-back threes from Llull.
Australia kept the lead safe and took 49-42 into halftime before Willy Hernangomez of FC Barcelona scored 5 points and Aldama's back-to-back threes gave Spain 54-56 lead in the third quarter, capping a 3-14 run. However, Australia responded with 8 straight points, and a 15-3 run of its own to restore a double-digit lead. In the fourth, Llull strung together 8 more points, including back-to-back threes to cut it to 73-68, but Australia pulled away again through Mills, Landale and Jack McVeigh and held on for victory.
Giddey flirted with a triple-double with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. For Spain, Hernangomez finished the game with 14 points, while Lorenzo Brown of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens had 7 points and a team high 7 assist.
Germany runs past Japan
In the second game of the day, Germany beat Japan 97-77 in Group B by leading from start to finish. Isaac Bonga scored 10 first-half points and helped the reigning World Champions open a 47-31 lead in the second quarter, but Japan cut it to 52-44 at halftime.
After the break, Germany maintained its lead through Daniel Theis, Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner, while Johannes Thiemann, last season's top scorer for ALBA Berlin, and FC Bayern Munich's Nick Weiler-Babb made it 83-64 with 7 minutes to go and Japan never rallied back.
Franz Wagner had 22 points, Theis 18 points and Schroder 13 points and 12 assists. Bonga finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds in the victory. Weiler-Babb finished with 5 points and was one of our German players with a double digit +/-; his was 10 in 19 minutes on the floor.
Rui Hachimura led Japan with 20 points plus 10 rebounds.
France comes from behind against Brazil
In the second game of Group B, host France rallied from a first-half double-digit deficit to beat Brazil 78-66.
Brazil led by 12 points in the second quarter but Victor Wembanyama turned on the jets, scored 14 points before halftime, and with the help of Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier and reigning EuroLeague champion Mathias Lessort of Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, France turned things around and was up 39-36 at halftime.
Early in the second half, Frank Ntilikina of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade hit a triple and ignited another France run, capped by a baskets from Dreamland Gran Canaria guard Andrew Albicy and Real Madrid forward Guerschon Yabusele for a 54-41 margin. France kept the lead, but back-to-back threes from Lucas Dias and Marchelinho Huertas help cut it to 62-58.
But Virtus Segafredo Bologna's Isaia Cordinier and Ntilikina with another three-pointer sparked a 7-0 run, and France was on its way to victory. Wembanyama had 19 points and 9 rebounds, and Batum also scored 19 in a victory. Ntilikina was the next best scorer for France with 9 points, and also had 3 assists and 2 steals. Cristiano Felicio and Leo Meindl scored 14 apiece for Brazil.
Canada survives late Greece rally
The final game of the opening day in basketball saw Canada prevail over Greece 79-86 despite a valiant late effort from the losing team.
Canada scored the game’s first 6 points and led 7-19 midway through the opening quarter. Olympiacos Piraeus forward Kostas Papanikolaou drilled a pair of three-pointers in a 10-0 Greece run to trim the margin to 2 before Jamal Murray free throws made it 22-26 after 10 minutes. R.J. Barrett had a strong finish to the second quarter to give Canada a 38-48 halftime advantage.
A hot start to the second half saw Canada go ahead by 16. Giannis Antetokounmpo and AS Monaco’s Nick Calathes helped Greece halve the deficit. The margin stood at 60-68 with 10 minutes remaining. Greece rallied in the fourth and several times had possession while trailing by 4, but back-to-back three-pointers by Luguentz Dort and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander restored a double-digit lead for Canada. Greece made one last charge as a floater by Aris Midea Thessaloniki guard Vassilis Toliopoulos was followed by a Thomas Walkup steal, which led to a Antetokounmpo slam that made it 78-80 inside the final minute. Gilgeous-Alexander answered for Canada and free throws by Murray with 15.2 seconds left put the game on ice.
Barrett paced the Canadian attack with 23 points and Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 21 points and 7 assists for the winners. Antetokounmpo netted 34 points to match his jersey number for Greece and Papanikolaou added 17 points in defeat.
(Top photo: FIBA)