Final preview: Which team will rule the world?

MANILA (Philippines) - It all comes down to this. Germany and Serbia have reached the Final of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, setting up an electric game after their fast paced wins in Semi-Finals.

The game tips off at 14:40 CET, 20:40 local time in the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines.

 
Key matchup: The obvious one, Dennis Schroder v Bogdan Bogdanovic. The two men who both left their mark in the Atlanta Hawks are now destined for greatness with the national teams, one small step away from taking the entire nation to the basketball Mt Everest.

Schroder had a perfect bounce back game in the Semi-Finals, after a nightmare Quarter-Final with 22 missed field goals. It wasn't just about scoring, it was about calling the right plays at the right time against the United States, and delivering the dagger pull up two-pointer in the final minute.

Overall, he's got 17.9 points, 6.7 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in this World Cup, making his case to win the MVP award quite clearly.

Bogdanovic has been amazing for Serbia, too. Even though he's not playing the same position as Schroder in theory, they will have similar roles in making the right plays and leading their team from the backcourt, being the floor generals.

Bogdan scores 19.4 points per day, with 4.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals, challenging for the most steals in the World Cup bragging rights. He's also flirting with the magical 50-40-90 shooting split, going 52-40-84 after the first seven games in the Philippines.

X factors: Besides the obvious stars in Bogdanovic, Schroder, Nikola Milutinov or Franz Wagner, search for the Semi-Finals heroes to step up again. Andreas Obst has been the talk of the world after getting the TCL Player of the Game award against the United States, if he can produce that spark once more, Germany could celebrate their first World Cup trophy.

 

Coach Svetislav Pesic is known for his high intensity defense, which is why his X factors will be Ognjen Dobric and Aleksa Avramovic. These two will try to pressure Schroder and Maodo Lo the same way they tortured Rokas Jokubaitis, Vaidas Kariniauskas, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and all the others over the last two and a half weeks.

Stats don't lie: There is nothing between these two teams. Nothing! The margins are so slim, it's almost impossible to pick a winning stat for either team. Serbia score more points in transition, but after seeing Germany speeding next to the USA, do you really want to get into a running contest with them?

Germany excel in second chance points, but if you watched Serbia's performance against Canada, you know that the second chance points barely exist with the way Milutinov and his teammates control the rebounds. Stats don't lie, they say this one will be impossible to predict.

Past matchups: Serbia and Germany played just once in the FIBA Basketball World Cup history, back in 2010, when Milenko Tepic's layup came up just short in a double overtime game in Kayseri, Turkey, meaning Germany celebrated an 82-81 win.

They faced off in two FIBA EuroBasket games. Serbia won both of them, 68-66 in Germany in 2015, and 75-64 in Lithuania in 2011. From the 2015 squads, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nikola Milutinov, Maodo Lo, Niels Giffey, Dennis Schroder and Johannes Voigtmann are still here.

They said: "We talked about it in the locker room after the game, it's a great win (over the United States), but we're not where we want to be yet. This group of players wants to win the gold. One more to go. I have no idea (on how to approach the Serbia game). We were focused on USA 100 percent, we haven't seen Serbia play. Coach Pesic is a friend, great coach, one of the best coaches in Europe of all time." - Gordie Herbert, Germany head coach

"This will be very interesting. I still feel like I am part of the German basketball, without a question. I am always happy for German basketball, and I still live in Germany, over the years I had only the positive experience there. People say I did a lot for German basketball, and it makes me happy that we're gonna go up against Germany." - Svetislav Pesic, Serbia head coach

Here are more features written about Germany:

They gotta build him a statue - Obst much more than just a shooter

USA v Germany: The best game in FIBA history?

Internet exploded in reaction to The Obst-acle

Franz Wagner's timely return

 

Here are more features written about Serbia:

How did they do it? Three takeaways from Serbia's win over Canada

Serbia's unheralded warriors: Avramovic, Davidovac and Dobric

Bogdanovic breaks more records

Pesic's Legacy

FIBA