France made to work before dispatching Japan in FIBA World Cup 2023 tune-up
As they celebrated Evan Fournier's 100th international, Les Bleus have to huff and puff to beat the men's basketball worlds co-hosts before a full house at Tokyo's Ariake Arena.
Basketball
Evan Fournier admits it: France have their work cut out for the FIBA World Cup 2023 after sweating out an 88-70 win over Japan on Thursday (17 August) in their penultimate warm-up friendly at Tokyo's Ariake Arena.
“I think we’re getting better,” said Fournier, who spoke to Olympics.com and celebrated his 100th international appearance for Les Bleus on a good night of basketball, chipping in 10 points and a pair of assists to his team’s cause.
“We still have a lot of work to do, to be honest. But even during competition you can get better so as we face different adversity we’re going to have to adapt to get as far as possible.”
Japanese marksman Tominaga Keisei led all scorers with 20 points behind four 3s in 22 minutes.
France were paced by Rudy Gobert's 16 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting and nine rebounds. Sylvain Francisco and Nando de Colo added 14 points apiece.
Nicolas Batum did not suit up for France. Neither did Japan's Watanabe Yuta, who sat out after spraining his right ankle in Tuesday's 75-65 win over Angola.
Despite having to chase Japan all over the court - France were only up by five at the break before pulling away in the third quarter - Fournier seemed pleased about winning his 100th cap but also about simply playing after a rough season with the New York Knicks.
Fournier played in just 27 games for the Knicks and didn’t get a single minute during the play-offs.
“Yeah, it’s a good setting,” said the new 30-year-old centurion. “Being in Japan, playing against Japan just before the World Cup.
“It feels good. I’m happy about it as there’s a lot of years with the national team.
“Not playing, I missed basketball. So being out there, it’s definitely a little extra motivation.”
France stay in Tokyo for one final exhibition against on Australia on Sunday before relocating to Jakarta for World Cup tournament play. They are in Group H with Canada, Latvia and Lebanon.
Japan wrap up their build-up on Saturday against Luka Doncic and Slovenia.