Germany dominate Jordan to get their first win in the World Cup

BEIJING (China) - Germany avoided a winless Group Phase campaign after whipping Jordan, 96-62, to finish with a 1-2 record in Group G of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.

Max Kleiber scored a game-high 18 points to lead Germany while Danilo Barthel and Paul Zipser chipped in 13 and 12 points respectively. Dennis Schroder had a masterful performance, directing the German offense with 11 assists and also added 10 points.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Al-Dwairi and Dar Tucker combined for 31 points to account for half of Jordan's full game output. 

Turning Point: With Jordan staring at a huge but still manageable deficit of 17 at the start of the fourth quarter, Germany crushed any hopes of an upset with a massive 18-2 opening blast to take a massive 84-51 lead and turn the game into a blowout.

TCL Player of the Game:  Dennis Schroder recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 assists while also chipping in from the three-point area with a perfect 2-of-2 performance.

Stats Don't Lie: Germany's superior teamwork was apparent with their advantage in the assists department, 29-12. The German's also had a field day shooting the ball with a 59 percent clip compared to the 37 percent performance of Jordan.

Bottom Line: Both teams are already relegated to the Classification Phase, the win by Germany will give them the upper hand to try and get the highest possible place, the 17-20th spot, which also gives them a better chance to bag an Olympic Qualifier berth for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

They Said: "We lost our first two games so that was pretty tough for us. But we still have a goal, so we just tried to play our best game today and prove that we are a different team than the one we showed the first two days. With 29 assists we played a different game today. We had fun and shared the ball. This is how we can play. - Germany forward Maximilian Kleber 

"It was a very important game for us today after the two opening games. The adjustments the guys made were defensively and sharing the ball. Of course, it is a little bit easier to do so against Jordan, who I thought gave us a great fight. I love to see this team play because they play with so much heart. They share it, they are together. Of course, they may not be the most talented team here but they are fun to watch. For us, it’s step one in the right direction. We have two more games to play that we certainly do want to win. - Germany head coach Henrik Rodl

"This is basketball. Whoever plays better wins, and they played better than us. They stuck to the system more than us. They shot better than us. They just played better. They deserved to win. That’s it. - Jordan guard Mahmoud Abdeen

"From a technical standpoint, we gave them too many three-point looks - wide-open looks. They’re too good of a team to be able to not contest shots. We didn’t do a good job of having guys protect on on-ball screens. We weren’t able to recover and get to their shooters. But Germany is a very good basketball team. I know they didn’t advance, they are a little disappointed, but at the end of the day, they are one of the top teams in the world. They have a bright future. They have a good nucleus. They’ll be very good. I’m hoping we will use this as a learning experience and we’ll be able to grow as a basketball team. - Jordan head coach Joey Stiebing

FIBA