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New York Knicks disgruntled guard Evan Fournier came into the 2023 FIBA World Cup a man on a mission. But he was met with frustration after frustration.
The Kristaps Porzingis-less Latvia added to Fournier’s woes as they eliminated France from medal contention with a stunning 88-86 come-from-behind win on Sunday in Jakarta, Indonesia.
In a nightmare finish that followed their embarrassing 30-point loss to Canada two days ago, France squandered a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Fournier, who led both teams in scoring with 27 points, fell silent down the stretch. He was limited to only two free throws, missing all his four attempts in that fateful fourth-quarter collapse.
France’s downfall started with a missed 3-pointer from Fournier, quickly followed by Nando de Colo’s ejection with 6:46 remaining and France up by nine, 75-66.
Latvia outscored France, 22-11, the rest of the way to notch a historic first win in the nation’s maiden appearance in the FIBA World Cup.
Fournier shot an efficient 9-of-18 from the field, including 5-of-11 from deep but his fourth-quarter no-show doomed France. The 30-year-old French guard added three rebounds and one assist but also committed four turnovers.
Artūrs Žagars (22), Rolands Šmits (20) and Oklahoma City Thunder forward Davis Bertans (15) led Latvia in scoring and made the clutch plays down the stretch.
Šmits gave Latvia its first lead in the fourth quarter on two clutch free throws with 37 seconds left. Bertans secured the defensive rebound in the next play and Žagars’ charity split with 10 seconds left pegged the final score as France’s Sylvain Francisco missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Fournier and France are now relegated to the classification phase for 17th to 32nd regardless of the result of their final group phase game against Lebanon on Tuesday. Despite being eliminated from the medal rounds, France is still scheduled to play as the host in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Evan Fournier’s Scoring Exploits Not Enough
Before the World Cup, Fournier vowed to use this as his launchpad for the next NBA season following his ouster from the Knicks rotation.
Through two games, Fournier is leading France in scoring with 24.0 points per game, which ranks fifth in the whole tournament behind Slovenia’s Luka Doncic (37.0), South Sudan’s Carlik Jones (35.0), Dominican Republic’s Karl Anthony-Towns (25.0) and Philippines’ Jordan Clarkson (24.5).
But a winless record, and his cold shooting spell when his France needed him most is not helping Fournier’s case.
RJ Barrett’s Redemption Game
RJ Barrett bounced back from a jarring two-point, 1-of-10 shooting performance, with an efficient 17-point showing and a windmill dunk that brought the house down.
Barrett made 7 of 12 field goals as he led Canada to an easy 128-73 win over Lebanon for their second straight win in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
His 3-pointer and an assist to Kelly Olynyk sparkes a 13-2 Canada run that turned a 6-5 deficit into an 18-8 lead which ballooned to 29-13 at the end of the first quarter.
It was all Canadians needed to deck the Lebanese in the one-sided match.
Up next for Barrett and Canada is Latvia on Tuesday.
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