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France will compete for the gold medal in men’s basketball at the 2024 Paris Olympics, defeating Germany 73-69 in the semifinals on Thursday. It was a hard-fought victory as Germany rallied from a 13-point deficit in the final minutes, but France prevailed. This is the first time since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics that the host country will progress to the gold medal game in men’s basketball.

The French basketball team has had an explosive 48 hours, defeating Canada in the quarterfinals and now defeating Germany, a team it lost to in the tournament’s group stage. Despite a poor performance in group play, which featured a scare against Japan, France is back in the gold medal game after reaching the same point at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The French will wait for the winner of the USA-Serbia match, and if Team USA wins, it will be a rematch of the final game three years ago. But before we get ahead of ourselves, here are some key lessons from France’s thrilling victory over defending FIBA World Champions Germany.

Wembanyama’s modest statistics don’t do him justice.

The box score will not reveal how significant Victor Wembanyama was to France on Thursday. He finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and three blocks, so you may believe he had a typical game. But he had a lot greater impact on the game than his metrics would indicate. He struggled with scoring efficiency once more, going 4 of 17 from the field, but he made up for it in other aspects of the game. He fed his teammates in the perfect locations, collected rebounds, and demonstrated his power around the rim by swatting away everything that came near him.

The most stunning block of the day came in the fourth quarter, with France leading by ten points. Germany attempted to go on a run, and Dennis Schroder was wide open on the wing for a three-pointer. In most cases, he could have taken that shot cleanly, but not when playing against Wemby. The 7-foot-4 French sensation took two big steps to close on Schroder and block his shot. This was not a case of “Oh, he grazed the ball, but it still made it to the rim.” No, he got most of his fingers on the ball while it was already in mid-air, stopping it in its tracks. As a result, France received the ball and pushed it in transition, resulting in a Frank Ntilikina 3-pointer on the other end.

He blocked Schroder again as he attempted to drive to the rim while Wemby loomed under the basket. Wembanyama’s presence in the game prevented Germany from driving towards the rim, removing a significant portion of Germany’s advantage. Germany had averaged 29 points in the paint throughout the tournament until Thursday’s game against France, but they were limited to only 28 points. It was undoubtedly due to Wembanyama’s presence and a tweak in the lineup that gave him more opportunity to roam in the paint to make a difference.

Wembanyama burst into tears after the game. You can tell how passionately he plays while wearing the France jersey, and those emotions came to a head as the bell rang.

“It’s a chance to write history,” Wembanyama remarked about competing for a gold medal. “The fans made it hard for me not to cry.”

France has an opportunity to do the unfathomable if it faces Team USA in the gold medal rematch. And if it pulls off the upset, France’s men’s basketball team will win gold for the first time in Olympic history.

Gobert comes off the bench again.

There were some conflicting messages following France’s quarterfinals victory against Canada, since Rudy Gobert did not start and only played three minutes. Gobert explained that it was because he damaged his finger during practice. However, France coach Vincent Collet stated that the four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year was not the only reason for his limited usage. Collet stated that eliminating Gobert from the starting lineup was due to mismatches. He chose not to start Gobert because to Canada’s smaller, more athletic rotation, but he did say the 7-footer would play in the semifinals versus Germany.

However, Gobert did not start again against Germany, and he only played five minutes as Collet relied on reserve centre Mathias Lessort from the bench. Lessort finished with ten points and four rebounds. Guerschon Yabusele and Isaia Cordinier’s participation in the starting lineup paid off once more, as they led France’s scoring attack. While Gobert may be dealing with a finger injury, it’s obvious that Collet is seeing this as a matchup problem and would rather go with a smaller, more physical bunch against opposing teams.

But the fact that Gobert can’t even get 10 minutes off the bench is really ridiculous. This is one of the best defensive players in the NBA, and in each of the last two games, he’s essentially been a benchwarmer, only subbing in to grab rebounds off of free throws. Given the size of the Americans and Serbs, you have to believe he will return to the rotation, if not the starting lineup, if France plays Team USA. They’ll need him to defend Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, even if it means giving up some scoring opportunities for Yabusele or Cordinier.

Role players impress once again.

MVP chants echoed inside Bercy Arena in Paris, but they weren’t for Wembanyama, Gobert, Nicolas Batum or Evan Fournier — a quadrant of the most well-known NBA talent on the French roster. Yabusele, the 16th overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, only played 74 NBA games. He may not have worked out in the NBA, but he is France’s unsung hero. He once again led his team in scoring, finishing with 17 points, seven rebounds and two assists. Each time he stepped to the free-throw line, he was serenaded with MVP chants, a wild circumstance considering just two games ago, he was coming off the bench for France.

But the decision to put him in the starting lineup, as well as Cordinier, proved to be the injection of offensive scoring needed for this French team. Cordinier had 16 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals as he is proving to be the ideal guard for France in this tournament alongside Ntilikina in the backcourt. He matched up well with Canada’s athletic guards and outplayed Germany’s Dennis Schroder (18 points) in the semifinals, too. No one would’ve expected that France would get to the gold-medal game on the strength of its role players, but those guys are the precise reason why the host country has advanced this far.