Vincent Collet (coach of the French basketball team, after the 90-72 victory against Lithuania): “We had a rather successful match. We always have moments a little weaker, we must continue to progress. But overall, it’s still quite rich. In the first period, the match-up zone and the press worked very well. It’s a shame that we still conceded too many rebounds. But in the third quarter, we completely locked. And there, we were able to fly away. We always keep the passing game and the will to give ourselves the ball. It’s good but we have to continue and above all not stop on the way because it will be even harder in three weeks (at the start of the World Cup). The Blues on diesel at the start of the match? Yes, so there are opponents opposite… We’re not going to knock them out from the start every time, it’s undermining work. I think that over time, it’s exhausting for our opponents, we put pressure on and we want to keep doing it. We narrowly lacked a bit, at the beginning, a little impatience in several situations. These are things to be settled. But we know that we must continue to climb. Friday’s match (again against Lithuania, in Vilnius) will be very tough. I think Lithuanians will be upset. They will want to react. A few years ago, we had already had a double confrontation: we had won by 20 points in Orleans and we had taken 20 three days later. We will try to do things differently.” (on beIN SPORTS)
Nicolas Batum (captain of the Blues): “Happy with the game? Yes. The big downside of this team is the offensive rebound. On that, we weren’t good tonight. That’s a shame. The performance is quite nice, but this still needs to be corrected. If we want to go far later, we have to finish the actions in defense. Unfortunately, we are not doing that yet. We must correct that in the last three preparation matches before facing Canada at the World Cup. Lithuania in Vilnius on Friday? We expect a response from them, they will be at home, we know the Lithuanian public. It will be a big challenge for us, that’s very good. It’s up to us to be ready to respond and put on a big game.” (on beIN SPORTS)
