Time to hit the panic button.
The U.S. men’s basketball team fell 83-76 to France in its debut at the Tokyo Games on Sunday — marking the first Olympic loss by the country since 2004, when America finished only with a bronze medal.
Sunday’s loss followed a shaky series of exhibition games in which the U.S. struggled with the competition, losing to Nigeria and Australia.
Behind Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert, France pulled away on a 16-2 run in the final minutes to upset the U.S. Down 2 with 40 seconds left, the U.S. missed three shots on consecutive possessions that could have given them the lead — only for each attempt to clank off the rim.
Star Kevin Durant went just 4 of 12 from the field and fouled out in 20 minutes of game time.
Fournier led France with 28 points.
Sunday’s defeat snapped a 25-game win streak for the U.S.
Even with the loss, the U.S. still has a chance at gold as it can advance out of Group A as there’s a round-robin format in place.
But they’ll need one of the two best records in their group of four countries, making their margin of error that much smaller.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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