The German national basketball team has conceded a bitter defeat to kick off the World Cup. In China's Shenzhen, the selection of the German Basketball Federation (DBB) of the team from France was subject to a strong catch-up 74:78 (20:36). Best German thrower was Johannes Voigtmann with 25 points, in the French Evan Fournier came on 26 points. The opening game in German Group G won the Dominican Republic against outsiders Jordan 80:76 (47:36).
After a strong preparation with six wins from seven games, including the victory against title candidate Australia, the DBB team did extremely hard against the favored Frenchman. Above all, the strong defensive for the NBA pros Rudy Gobert (Utah Jazz) and Nicolas Batum (Charlotte Hornets) presented the Germans with problems. So France led after three and a half minutes already 14-0, before Maodo Lo drew the first points for the German team with a threesome.
In the second quarter, the Germans came in the meantime ran up to four points, but then let down again. At half time they were 20:36 back and were even after the kick-off hard with the intense defense of the French, who further underpinned their status as a medal contender at this World Cup.
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Basketball World Cup: The 32 participants in the PowerrankingIn the course of the third quarter, the game of the German ride also took off. Because at the same time the French acted increasingly negligent, made a run of 22: 7 points from the point of view of the DBB team the game again exciting. At the beginning of the last quarter, the team were only four points behind after a two-point throw by Daniel Theis. Seven seconds before the end, Paul Zipser shortened to 74:76, but with two free throws France could save the victory over time.
This defeat could put the DBB team in the fight for the knockout still expensive. Admittedly, the top two in Germany's Group G needed to reach the second round should not be too big a hurdle in the face of the next opponents Dominican Republic (Tuesday, 10.30, Liveticker SPIEGEL) and Jordan. But in the second round, in which two more games are pending and only the top two teams in the quarter-finals come, just all the points are taken. With a defeat in this second round to go, narrowing the chances significantly.
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Basketball World Cup: This is the German squad
