Nearly three years after losing the European championship final to Spain, France start their new campaign on Thursday night against Belgium in Katowice without NBA stars Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert.
Wembanyama, 21, will miss the tournament as he continues his recovery from the a blood clot on his right shoulder that ended his 2024-25 season in February.
Gobert, 33, who has played for 12 seasons in the NBA, stepped away from international duties to ensure full fitness for the launch of the NBA season in October.
In their absence, France head coach Frédéric Fauthoux will look to NBA star Guerschon Yabusele to guide a crop of youngsters through the Group D games against Slovenia, Israel, Poland and Iceland.
"If we want to go far, the players will have to be at their best." Fauthoux said in an interview with the French basketball federation's website after Sunday night's final warm-up match against Greece.
"We get results when the top players are playing well."
Greece led France 49-43 at half-time in Athens but a strong third quarter put the visitors ahead 71-61.
France maintained their dominance to win 92-77. The success furnished them with a 100 percent record from their five warm-up games.
On 4 August in Mouilleron-le-Captif, France beat Montenegro 81-75 and three days later in Pau, they overcame Great Britain 74-67. Back-to-back wins in Badalona and Paris over Spain followed, before the victory over Greece.
In the afterglow of the preparation games, Fauthoux warned that his squad would not fall to overconfidence.
"I don't think winning the games will be a trap," the 51-year-old Frenchman told the sports newspaper L'Equipe.
"We've built up confidence by the way we've been playing. That's very important. And of course, it's always better to win.
"But winning doesn't stop us from seeing everything we did wrong like in the first-half against Greece. These are things which we can work on."
The tournament starts on Wednesday night with the three games in Group A at the Xiaomi Arena in the Latvian capital Riga and three Group B ties at the Tampere Deck Arena in Finland.
Spain begin the defence of their title on Thursday night in the Group C clash against Georgia in Limassol, Cyprus. They will also play Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Italy and Greece.
The top four teams in the four pools advance to the last-16 knockout stages. The final will be played on 14 September in Riga.
