Saitama, Japan – Nicolas Batum of France caught up with Klemen Prepelic of Slovenia to block his last shot with 2.4 seconds to go, for his country to reach the final of Olympic basketball.
France defeated Slovenia 90-89 in the men’s basketball semifinals at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday night, beating a historic night by Luka Doncic.
Doncic achieved the third triple-double in the history of the Olympic men: 16 points, 10 rebounds and 18 assists. But it was not enough, and Slovenia fell to leave the Mavericks player’s record at 17-1 in international matches with their national team.
France will play the United States on Saturday (11:30 am local time Japan, 9:30 pm Friday Dallas time) to decide the gold medal at the Tokyo Games. France lost gold to the Americans in the title game at the 2000 Sydney Games.
Slovenia will meet Australia for bronze on Saturday at the Saitama arena.
