German superstars break in at the most inopportune time
The Gold Dream is burst, the winning streak broken. The German basketballers have lost a game at an international tournament for the first time since 2022 and must settle for the "small final" against Serbia. France will face the USA in the final.
"I'm very disappointed right now. When you're so close to reaching an Olympic final, I think it's understandable." German NBA star Franz Wagner was visibly affected after his team's surprising 69:73 loss to France. Captain Dennis Schröder and the rest of the team left the court at the Paris Bercy Arena, where the 12,454 fans had previously turned the arena into a sea of blue, white, and red.
"The French played very differently and much more physically than they did in Lille. We had some trouble with that," Wagner said after the game, which started well for the basketball world champions. However, it became increasingly clear that the hosts were not only playing with different personnel and tactics but also with a different intensity and aggression compared to their shock defeat in the preliminary round a week ago.
Germany, which completely lost its rhythm at the worst possible moment, managed to make a comeback after being down by double digits and even had a chance to win in the final minute. However, the team ultimately missed out on reaching the Olympic final due to several missed opportunities. "I don't think we played our best game. But that's also part of sports. We didn't give up."
Cursed second quarter: The beginning of the end
When Franz Wagner forced Victor Wembanyama to a turnover after three minutes in the second quarter, France's wonder boy had only two points and two rebounds to his name. Germany was leading by six at that point, and Wagner's plus/minus value was the highest of all players on the court at plus-eight. While Wagner was then benched for almost seven minutes, the DBB offense almost completely stalled - the beginning of the end for the world champions.
Led by an unrelenting captain Nic Batum, the French defense gradually dug in and forced the previously most turnover-free team of the tournament to unusually commit seven of their total 15 turnovers and a meager eight points in the quarter. It was the worst quarter for the Germans in this Olympic tournament, as they only made three of their eleven field goal attempts, while France scored seven times from inside the paint, six of which were dunks or layups. The enthusiastic fans roared their "Équipe Tricolore" to a 33:33 halftime tie.
As in the quarterfinal against Canada, the role players Guershon Yabusele and Isaia Cordinier took on the main responsibility in the attack, after head coach Vincent Collet had radically changed his formation and rotation following the embarrassing preliminary round loss. Cordinier put France in a good position with eleven of his 16 points before the break, before Yabusele threw his team back into the lead with eleven of his 17 points in the second half. Germany's game was falling apart, and the French won the second and third quarters 38:25. A further run at the beginning of the final quarter seemed to have already decided the game at 66:53.
The guests fought their way back once more. A fantastic 13:4 run led to a 68:70 score. Then France missed another shot, with the rebound landing twelve seconds before the end with Franz Wagner, who stumbled and couldn't secure the ball. Germany sent Wembanyama to the line. The young star only made one (71:68) and forced his team to foul immediately to prevent the three-pointer. Schröder missed his first of two attempts (69:71), Cordinier sealed the four-point victory with two successful free throws. "That's tough for us. We deserved to advance to the final," said Andreas Obst. "That's a tough loss, but we have to get our heads back in the game quickly," said Andreas Obst.
In the preliminary round, Wagner and Schröder had dominated the hosts: Wagner with two monster dunks, Schröder with jump shots in a row, even one almost from the mid-line. In the end, Germany's stars had each scored 26 points in the 85:71 blowout victory - the fifth-highest scoring games in the history of the DBB at the games, after Detlef Schrempf, who claimed the top four spots.
Paris is not Lille, and the semi-final is not the preliminary round. Germany's dangerous duo only managed 28 points together. Schröder scored 18 points, but only six of his 18 shot attempts and three of his 11 three-pointers. He also distributed only four assists - almost five fewer than his average per game. Wagner fared even worse: the young star from the Orlando Magic scored only ten points with 4-10 from the field, 2-6 from outside, and no free throw attempts.
It started out great, though ...
Especially bitter is that both began the game exactly where they had left off nearly a week ago in Lille: explosive, efficient, and effective in shredding the French defense. Both Wagner and Schröder started with seven early points each, helping Germany to a 16:7 lead after five minutes. After that, not much went right: Wagner only scored one more field goal, Schröder missed eleven of his 15 shot attempts in the first quarter.
Germany had gone 13 games without a loss in international tournaments. Their last defeat was on September 16, 2022, in the EuroBasket semi-final against the eventual champion Spain. Since then, the German basketball team had won the bronze medal game in 2022, all eight games at the FIBA World Cup 2023, and the first four games of this Olympic tournament - sometimes with outstanding performances that had established Gordon Herbert's team as perhaps the only serious contender to the seemingly invincible and star-studded Team USA in the fight for gold.
"It's not a video game. We don't always play perfectly. We're all humans and we'll learn from this," said Franz Wagner after the loss, and went into more detail when asked about the reasons. "They have long guards, long wings, Wemby, Rudy, Lessort, they play very physically. They were strong, you have to give them credit. But we didn't play our kind of basketball today. We didn't have our best day, and they're different now than they were in our last meeting. They've made very good adjustments, and they just had a better day today than we did."
Wagner and Schröder were supposed to benefit from the hosts' overly aggressive defense, but Germany struggled to find its rhythm and score in the second half. The team that was previously the second-best offensive team in the tournament managed only 44 points in the final 30 minutes, with a meager 34% field goal percentage. France's dominance in hustle statistics sealed the game in their favor. The hosts scored more points in the paint, off turnovers, in fast breaks, and from the free-throw line.
"Congratulations to France," said a disappointed German coach at the end. "We weren't at our best, didn't take care of the ball well. But we fought back, showed a lot of character. It's hard to look ahead right now, but we have a very important game coming up. We'll focus on that starting tomorrow morning." Germany will face Serbia in a rematch of the World Cup final on Saturday, after Serbia narrowly lost to the USA (91:95) in a thriller.
"Franz Wagner and the team had high hopes of reaching the Olympic final in Paris, but their surprising loss to France put an end to their winning streak and forced them to face Serbia in the small final."
"Despite France's physical and aggressive play, which was different from their previous encounter, German NBA star Franz Wagner and his teammates still had an opportunity to win in the final minute, but unfortunately, several missed opportunities cost them the chance to advance to the Olympic final."
