Jaylen Brown has been a versatile weapon for the U.S. men’s national basketball team at the FIBA World Cup, but his nine points weren’t enough to get by France.
The French defeated Team USA in the quarterfinal matchup 89-79 in Dongguan, China on Wednesday. When asked about the loss, Brown kept it very simple.
“France just played better than us tonight,” he said, per USA Basketball. “That’s why we lost.
“We knew it was going to be a (tough) game,” Brown added. “We just didn’t do what needed to be done. At the end of the day, we came up short. France was better than us tonight, unfortunately.”
Head coach Gregg Popovich credited their opponent as well, noting it wasn’t just Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert that performed well for France in their victory.
“Well, a lot of the guys played well,” Popovich said after the loss. “(Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert) were outstanding. But they have a basketball team, and all the pieces fit. Like I said, they’re all playing defense. They’re sharing the basketball. They made good decisions. There weren’t many mental mistakes. Didn’t think the switching bothered them for a while, and it got them back in the game, and they went ahead. But in the end, I think their experience and their execution shows. And that’s a credit to all of them, not just two guys.”
Team USA can finish no better than fifth place after Wednesday’s loss and will face Serbia, who is ranked fourth in the world, on Thursday at 7 a.m. ET.
