Damper against Doncic: After marching through to the round of 16 of the home European Championship, the German basketball players suffered their first defeat despite a tough fight. Due to the 80:88 (36:44) in the duel with European champion Slovenia for the strong NBA star Luka Doncic, the team of national coach Gordon Herbert in Cologne missed the chance to win the group early and now needs support in the preliminary round final.
If the Slovenians, who clearly lost out to the German team in the last dress rehearsal in Munich (71:90), also beat France on Wednesday, they are guaranteed first place in Season B. Regardless of how the selection of the German Basketball Association (DBB) then (8.30 p.m. / MagentaSport) plays against Hungary. If you manage to win over the tail light, at least second place is guaranteed – important for the starting position before the final round.
“80 points are actually okay, in the end it wasn’t enough offensively to compensate for what Luka did there. We believed in it, but we discarded too many free things. It wasn’t a brilliant performance offensively today and we didn’t find the means defensively,” said Johannes Voigtmann at MagentaSport.
Nine days after the match in the Audi Dome in the World Cup qualifier, the game started with a moment of shock for the Slovenians. Center Mike Tobey landed on the umpire’s foot after the first jump ball, twisted his ankle and hobbled into the dressing room. Minutes later, however, the native American returned.
“Can’t get Doncic under control”
The German team initially had completely different problems. Only one of the first nine throws from the field ended up in the basket. Like last time, captain Dennis Schröder had no hand at all from the three-man line, the Slovenians managed to open a double-digit gap early on (24:14/11th minute).
The European champion was visibly hot for revenge for Munich. Doncic in particular unnerved his opponents and already had 17 points at the break. Although things went a little better on offense in the DBB team in the second quarter, the gap didn’t get any smaller. “We didn’t get Doncic under control, we definitely have to do better in the second half,” said Johannes Thiemann at MagentaSport: “We’ll gather in the dressing room now – and then things will look better.”
The start was promising. Playmaker Schröder sunk a three, which in the thriller against Lithuania (109:107 a.e.t.2.V.) was so strong Franz Wagner shortened to 50:52 (27th). The Slovenians scored weakly in this phase but recovered. After the victories over France, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Lithuania, the first setback threatened, Doncic and Co. again drew ten points away (55:65/31st). Andreas Obst was always successful, but the Slovenians around top scorer Doncic (36 points) always had an answer. The game was over when Edo Muric scored on the free-throw line after an unsportsmanlike foul by Schröder to make it 86:80.
Schröder, who had to go into the dressing room early after boarding shortly before the end, was the host’s best thrower with 19 points in front of around 18,000 spectators in Cologne’s Lanxess Arena. In the round of 16 on Saturday (6 p.m. / MagentaSport) in Berlin, they will face a team from parallel group A with Spain and Turkey.
