France's Florent Pietrus and Tony Parker celebrate after they receive the gold medal during the 2013 EuroBasket. (Photo : Reuters)
Host nation France will tackle winless team Russia in day four of Group A preliminary round games in the 2015 EuroBasket at the Park&Suites Arena in Montpellier, France on Wednesday.
Russia still could not find its first win in the tourney after consecutive defeats to Israel, 76-73, in their opener last Saturday and to Poland, 82-79, on Sunday, as per EuroBasket 2015's official website.
The two games are heartbreaking losses for head coach Evgeny Pashutin as they are both decided in the final minutes. The Russians will try to halt it on Monday against Finland before going to this game against top contender France.
Russia was led by backup power forward Andrey Zubkov in their match against Poland with 21 points and seven rebounds but there are no indications that Pashutin will change his starting lineup.
Meanwhile, the defending champions are looking fearsome as ever, with a 97-87 over Finland in overtime during their opener and an 81-54 demolition of Bosnia and Herzegovina in their most recent game on Sunday, via SB Nation.
The French men are set to play Poland on Monday before this match against Russia.
Vincent Collet's squad had a balanced offense in their first two games and it is expected that they will continue to employ it against the Russians.
NBA stars Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum, and Rudy Gobert will continue their stellar play amidst limited minutes because the team had been blowing out their assignments so far.
Prediction: France wins, 90-67
Russia starting five: Ruslan Pateev (C), Andrey Vorontsevich (PF), Sergey Monya (SF), Egor Vyaltsev (SG), Dmitry Khvostov (PG)
France starting five: Rudy Gobert (C), Boris Diaw (PF), Nicolas Batum (SF), Nando De Colo (SG), Tony Parker (PG)
