France reflects the toughness of ex-Sixer Nico Batum and reaches the gold-medal game

PARIS — Johannes Voigtmann’s outlet pass sailed from one baseline of the Bercy Arena court here almost to the other, and Dennis Schröder caught the ball without much care. As far as he knew, there was no one around him. Maybe the constant noise from the French spectators and fans filling the place messed with his on-court radar, for his peripheral senses failed to alert him to Nico Batum running him down from behind, leaping at the last instant, and — as Schröder rose for what he thought would be an easy layup — swatting the shot away.

It was the most important play of Batum’s long career in basketball. Across 16 years in the NBA and four Olympics, from his lone season with the 76ers to this tournament, nothing else compares. Nothing comes close. That block, early in the third quarter Thursday, did more than preserve a three-point lead and help propel France past Germany, 73-69, in the semifinals of the men’s tournament. It served notice of the lengths that Batum and his teammates, inspired by the most partisan setting possible in these Games, will go in the name of a gold medal. They may not win, but they’ll spill blood trying.

Victor Wembanyama, France’s youngest and most talented player, actually did. It stained his white jersey and trickled from a cut slicing down his neck as he spoke to reporters after the game.

“The Olympics is every four years,” Batum said. “To play in the NBA, to play for a championship, every Oct. 1 you go to training camp. You’ve got a chance to dedicate [yourself] to go for a championship. For a team like us, the non-U.S. team, the non-Dream Team, you have one chance every four years — if you get qualified. You have to get qualified first. You go through the first round, then the quarterfinals, and then you have a chance.”

Wembanyama — 20 years old, 7-foot-3 and so multiskilled that it’s almost unfair, bound for a brilliant career with the San Antonio Spurs — didn’t do much offensively to help France. He missed 13 of his 17 shots from the field and finished with just 11 points. But eight of the 12 players on France’s roster are 6-6 or taller. This isn’t a team built to outscore opponents; it’s built to beat them through bump-and-body basketball. It’s easy to see how the crowd here fed off the French’s physical play, and Batum, 35 and smart and tough, is ideal in that regard.

He was a similar asset for the Sixers, averaging 5.5 points and shooting 39.9% from three-point range in 57 games for them last season after joining them in November; they acquired him from the Los Angeles Clippers in the James Harden trade. Against Germany, he had nine points, including a timely three-pointer for the first points of the second half and France’s first lead of the game, and that snuffed Schröder shot that electrified the arena. Wembanyama had three blocks himself and warded off twice as many by his mere presence in the lane.

“I told him at halftime, ‘I don’t give a damn if you miss a shot. Dominate the defensive end.’ And he did,” Batum said.

You didn’t care at all about his offense?

“I don’t care about any of that,” he said. “At the other end, you’ve got to be the biggest monster we’ve ever seen. And he was.”

France finished sixth in 2012 and 2016, Batum’s first two Olympics — “a nightmare,” he said — then gave Team USA everything it had in Tokyo, losing by five in the gold-medal game. It walked a high wire here in the prelims, Wembanyama pulling off a miraculous four-point play late against Japan to force overtime and buy France time to win, 94-90. But that close call is a distant memory now.

“This one’s a roller coaster so far,” said Batum, who re-signed with the Clippers in June. “The first round, we [stunk]. We got one shot from the youngest guy on the team, who pretty much saved us against Japan. Now we’re here today. It’s amazing.”

It promises to be in the gold-medal game against the United States. France’s fans don’t stand and cheer. They jump up and down and chant and scream as if they’re at a soccer match. They will do the same Saturday. The U.S. had better be ready, because Nico Batum and every one of his teammates will be.