The German national basketball team lost against European champions Slovenia by 80:88 and thus suffered their first defeat at the European Championships. The team of the German Basketball Federation (DBB) had already booked the round of 16 with the 109:107 victory in the thriller against the Lithuanians after two extra hours, and the defending champion already had the ticket to Berlin in his pocket. Despite the first defeat, victory in the group is still possible before the final game in Cologne against Hungary.
Anyone who watches the Slovenians in training sometimes gets the impression that they are approaching the tournament with a certain nonchalance. You might call it economic management, which is actually not a bad idea in such a demanding tournament that sometimes has matches played on consecutive days.
Compared to the highly concentrated units of group opponents such as Lithuania or Germany, one could interpret the appearance of the European champions as somewhat arrogant. At the weekend, when the European champions surprisingly lost 93:97 against the passionately fighting Bosnians, it looked as if the Slovenians weren’t taking their opponent seriously enough for a long time. And in the final minutes, their highly praised leader Luka Doncic was no longer able to turn the result around.
A completely different picture presented itself on Tuesday evening. The Slovenians defended with high intensity from the first second, attacked the duels bitingly and put the German players under pressure right from the start. Above all, Franz Wagner, who had played so splendidly in the previous games, enjoyed a very attentive opposing defense and fell short of his chances with eight points.
Even the moment of shock when Slovenia’s important center Mike Tobey landed on the referee’s foot with a jump ball, twisted his ankle and had to go into the dressing room, only had a brief effect. Tobey came back five minutes later and contributed to the 44:36 half-time lead. Above all, one player wanted to show that he was always a force to be reckoned with: Slovenian leader Luka Doncic was hard to stop, the Dallas Mavericks playmaker had already scored 17 points at half-time. But his team couldn’t make a decisive rush.
This time there is no stopping Slovenian playmaker Luka Doncic leading the defending champions to victory
Five quick points from Schröder, who at times fought a duel with Doncic for the best value of the evening and was the best DBB shooter with 19 points, as well as a rebound and a lay-up from Daniel Theis and it was the DBB selection again. The DBB selection fought flawlessly again, but it wasn’t enough to lead, the Slovenians went into the final quarter with a 61:55 lead. There, too, the shooting odds of the German players were simply too bad, so the defending champion, for whom Doncic contributed an outstanding 36 points, was always able to maintain a small lead.
In terms of commitment and morale, the hosts could not be blamed again. In the final minutes, Gordon Herbert’s team, in which Maodo Lo (13) and Andreas Obst (14) scored in addition to Schröder, closed the gap to five points. In the end, however, the victory went to the Slovenians, thanks to their outstanding playmaker. In addition to Doncic and the equally strong Goran Dragic (18 points), who is listed for the Chicago Bulls in the NBA, the strong defense, otherwise not the favorite discipline of the defending champion, was the deciding factor that evening.