French basketball heads into Olympics on a big losing streak

Team France has the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and home-court advantage for the Olympics. They also have a troubling four-game losing streak heading into the Paris Games.

The French team is the third-favorite to win a medal, behind overwhelming favorite Team USA and Team Canada. But they've dropped games to four quality Olympic teams, all in France, in the past weeks.

Victor Wembanyama was very good in their close loss to Australia, nearly logging a triple-double with 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, but the French perimeter players struggled. France committed 22 turnovers, while Australia's backcourt of Patty Mills and Josh Giddey combined for 44 points.

Despite some solid offensive chemistry between them, France's two best players are both centers. Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert are a stifling defensive duo, but a dual-center lineup isn't always great for spacing as Wemby shoots threes and passes,

The starting French backcourt includes two former New York Knicks in Frank Nkilitina and Evan Fournier, both of whom struggled mightily in the NBA recently. Nic Batum is a solid outside shooting threat off the bench, but he's also 35 years old. Isaïa Cordinier and 37-year-old Nando de Colo aren't exactly striking fear into opposing defenses.

But Wembanyama might be good enough to overcome France's other issues, especially if he's not sick anymore.

Gobert claimed Wembanyama had COVID-19 two weeks ago, just before he sat out France's loss to Germany. There's been no confirmation, but Gobert certainly knows about COVID.

A full-strength Wembanyama solves a lot of problems. But Les Bleus still have to be worried when they can't win a warmup game ahead of the biggest two weeks in French basketball history.