The German basketball players have won their final game at the World Cup in China. The team of national coach Henrik Rödl won in the final placement match narrowly against Canada 82:76 (36:33) and thus secured the participation in the Olympic qualifier tournament. Germany could have allowed themselves a defeat with 48 points, finished the World Cup with the victory over Canada in 18th place.
A good start was made by a 9-0 run, but the Canadians, with NBA championship coach Nick Nurse of the Toronto Raptors on the sideline, did not find a remedy for the German offensive at the end of the first quarter (24:25 / 14th minute). Shortly after the break, Paul Zipser committed two unsportsmanlike fouls within a minute and thus received a dismissal. In this phase, the flow of the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center was gone, Canada took advantage of the weaknesses and moved away (52: 41/26.).
Only in the final quarter the offensive game worked better again. Schröder hit his throws, Maxi Kleber struck with a dunking 83 seconds before the end to 78:71 for the decision. With 21 points, ten rebounds and nine assists top scorer Schröder narrowly missed a triple-double.
Olympic participation not yet fixed
Canada had to accept numerous cancellations of NBA stars. So only clocks Cory Joseph (Sacramento Kings) and Khem Birch (Orlando Magic) make their money in the best league in the world. The team failed in its heavily occupied preliminary round group in Australia (92: 108) and Lithuania (69:92). At 126: 71 over Jordan, they set with 24 countersunk distance throwing a world championship three-record.
The German team around NBA star Dennis Schröder had missed after defeats against France and the Dominican Republic, the entry into the second round of the tournament.After the 96: 62 victory against Jordan start the selection of the German Basketball Federation (DBB) with four points in the placement round to the positions 17 to 32. In Shanghai, it was in a new group of four before the game against Canada initially against Senegal.
In the summer of 2020, four qualifying tournaments will be awarded the last four Olympic tickets among 24 participants. In a tournament six teams meet and play a winner, who is allowed to Tokyo.