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Dream team drop-off U.S. hopes all scares have been exhausted
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Does France have a chance? Even the French players didn't think so after they beat Australia to reach the gold medal game, but now all bets are off after the American men had a huge scare in the semifinals. "Right now France is our toughest game," coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. On Friday, Lithuania provided a tougher test than anybody would have ever imagined. No more than three points separated the teams over the final 15 1/2 minutes and the game wasn't decided until the final shot -- a 3-pointer by Sarunas Jasikevicius -- was off-target at the final buzzer. The final score of 85-83 represented the closest game for an American men's team in the Olympics since 1988 -- the final year that collegians represented the United States. "We were fighting for our lives," Ray Allen said. "It would not have been very fun to play for the bronze medal. But these teams are good, and we know that on Sunday we could be in the same situation if we don't come out and just play the game of basketball."
Aside from Friday night's near-miracle, the surprise of the last few days of the tournament has been France. After finishing fourth in Group A to barely make it to the medal round, the French rolled past Canada, the first place team in Group B, and then knocked off the host team, Australia, with ease. The French players hugged each other and celebrated after beating the Aussies like they had won the gold medal, knowing in the back of their minds that they really have no chance to beat the Americans. A few hours later, they may have been reconsidering their earlier thoughts. "I just wanted to get the silver medal, so I played my best," France center Frederic Weis said. Could there be another surprise in store? "I don't know if it's possible," Weis said, "but we'll see. A game is a game, so we'll try." France scored 94 points against the Americans in the preliminary round and lost by just 12 in a game that was highlighted by Vince Carter soaring over the head of the 2.19-meter (7-foot-2) Weis for an incredible slam dunk. "Am I the first guy he dunked against?" Weis asked Friday, laughing at his own humor. France will look to get most of its offense from guards Laurent Sciarra and Antoine Rigaudeau, both of whom are a threat from 3-point range. Rigaudeau is shooting 37 percent from 3-point range in the Olympics and is averaging a team-high 13.0 points per game, while Sciarra has shot 42.3 percent from 3-point range while averaging 10.1 points per game. Weis is their leading rebounder, and guard Makan Dioumassi is their defensive stopper off the bench. France's third-leading scorer, Yann Bonato, ruptured his Achilles tendon against Canada and has already returned home. "Since we played well in our loss to the United States we have lost all our inhibitions," France coach Jean Pierre de Vincenzi said. "We are happy. We have to be. This has not happened for us since 1948." The Americans, meanwhile, were feeling a huge sense of relief Saturday after avoiding what would have been one of the biggest upsets in the history of basketball, Olympics or otherwise. Unable to create turnovers with their pressure defense and unable to pull away from the no-quit Lithuanians, the U.S. team was further flummoxed by Lithuania's use of a tight 2-3 zone defense. The Americans repeatedly pounded the ball inside, where they were quickly double-teamed, and were often unsuccessful trying to shoot over the zone from 3-point range. Incredibly, it came down to a final shot that might have come closer had Jason Kidd not been playing such tight defense on Jasikevicius. "I had a sigh of relief when I saw that the ball didn't touch anything and the time had expired off the clock," Ray Allen said. "It was a situation we put ourselves in, but when we win the gold medal we can definitely can say that we earned it." First, however, the Americans have to earn it one last time. Lithuania plays Australia in the bronze medal game.
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