Great grinding game between Australia, and France. Not so much physical grinding like the Australia v Lithuania game, but grinding as in great offensive execution by both teams. Australia got the win by just sticking to their game plan, not getting too high, or low emotionally, executing, and just grinding it out.
France is so long, and forced Australia into a lot of turnovers. Batum was great early, but then faded. Fournier was great offensively, but allowed Australia some easy buckets by switching off mentally on the defensive end.
Australia kept Baynes on the perimeter, and forced France to choose between Gobert protecting the rim, or Baynes taking 3's. France chose rim protection, Baynes went 5/6 from downtown. Australia also used Gobert's eagerness to try to block everything to get him fouled out of the game.
Great defence by Baynes in the last quarter, taking three charges in a row. Great steal by Patty.
I think Australia's greatest strength was 3 point shooting, and France's greatest strength was their ability to force turnovers. I reckon Australia won because they were calmer, and more focused in the last few minutes of the game. France made mistakes under the pressure. The commentators said Australia's average age was 3 years older than France.
