Gordon Herbert’s words were already outdated after a few hours. “We’re not through yet,” the national basketball coach said after his protégés’ impressive World Cup preliminary round victory over co-favorite Australia.
When the hosts Japan defeated the Finns at a later hour, the constellation had changed: Dennis Schröder and Co. are already winners of Group E in Okinawa, Japan. Whoever considers the remaining group game against Finland on Tuesday (9.30 a.m. / Magentasport) to be a meaningless training game , but wrong.
After reaching the intermediate round, it is about the starting position for qualifying for the final round, which takes place in Manila from the quarter-finals onwards. Only the two best teams in Groups E and F are allowed to go to the Philippines, where, in addition to World Cup medals, Olympic tickets for 2024 are also at stake.
The games from the group phase will be carried over into the intermediate round, Germany would like to go into the two other games next weekend with three wins and the ideal starting position that comes with it. Schröder and his colleagues defeated what was probably the toughest opponent in their own group, Australia, with 85:82. One of the two adversaries in the intermediate round will most likely be ex-European champions Slovenia with star player Luka Doncic.
