France coach Vincent Collet admits he may have let up too soon in the last game.
With a chance to avoid the tournament favorite until a potential gold-medal matchup, Collet might have a different approach as Group A play concludes.
France goes for a fourth consecutive victory Monday against a Nigeria team that could be eliminated from quarterfinal contention before the game begins.
Up by 20 late in the third quarter Saturday against winless Tunisia, Collet went to his reserves before his team hung on for a 73-69 victory.
"They made it tough for us," he told FIBA's official website. "Perhaps I opened the bench too early and this gave Tunisia a chance to come back."
While France (3-1) has guaranteed itself a spot in the quarterfinals, it can clinch the No. 2 seed in the group with a victory and an Argentina loss to the gold-medal favorite United States, which opened group play with a 98-71 victory over France on July 29.
Should France and the United States win Monday, the French would earn the second seed in Group A and face the loser of Monday's Brazil-Spain matchup in the quarterfinals. The winner of that game would likely face Group B winner Russia with a spot in the gold-medal game at stake.
Nigeria has more pressing concerns after falling to 1-3 with a 93-79 loss to Argentina on Saturday. While that result was a definite improvement from its previous contest - a 156-73 loss to the United States on Thursday - the Nigerians need a win and a Lithuania loss to Tunisia earlier Monday to advance to a quarterfinal matchup with Russia.
Regardless of the Lithuania result, Nigeria will likely need to get off to a better start if it's going to have any chance of defeating France. After getting outscored by 24 in the first quarter by the United States, Nigeria faced an 18-point deficit 10 minutes into Saturday's contest.
"You can't let an team with NBA All-Stars come out with a 20 (18) point lead from the first quarter," center Olumide Oyedeji said. "We had a terrible first quarter. When you consider the last two, we won those quarters."
Defeating France could be even more difficult as guards Ade Dagunduro and Tony Skinn are questionable due to injuries.
That doesn't bode well with French guard Tony Parker having been one of the top players in the tournament. Parker is scoring a team-best 19.0 points per game and shooting 52.4 percent.
France forward Nicolas Batum is averaging 15.3 points with a team-best 5.8 rebounds after scoring 19 with eight boards versus Tunisia.
Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf and Kevin Seraphin give the French great depth up front, but Nigeria's Ike Diogu and Al-Farouq Aminu could present a tough matchup.
Diogu is averaging a team-high 17.0 points and a tournament high-tying 9.5 boards while Aminu is scoring 9.8 points per game with 6.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists.
