PARIS (France) - They call them Die Mannschaft, meaning "the team," and there is no better explanation of their performance in the Quarter-Finals than that.
Germany opened up their account in Bercy with a 76-63 win over Greece, advancing to the Semi-Finals of the Olympics in Paris. It was a textbook team effort from all nine of Gordon Herbert's players who played on Tuesday.
Turning point
Greece opened up the game with 16 of their first 18 points coming from the painted area, catching Germany off guard and opening up a 12-point lead.
However, coach Gordon Herbert and his staff figured it out when the second quarter started, modifying their defense to hold Greece to six point from the paint in Q2 and completely erasing the deficit, entering the second half all tied at 36-all.
The teams kept going back and forth until the last tie of the game at 50-50 with just under three minutes to play. The turning point happened when Dennis Schroder put his body on the line, drawing a charge from Giannis Antetokounmpo, his third foul of the game.
"I played terrible offensively, so I had to do something," Schroder described the play.
"I've seen him in the first half, I watch a lot of film, I watch a lot games and I know what he likes to do. Calathes gave him the ball, and I knew he was gonna do the eurostep. It was a great play, but it's not about individuals. It's the team that set the tone."
Coach Vassilis Spanoulis tried to balance his minutes until the end of the third quarter, but against the world champs, two minutes are enough for them to create a 9-2 run and turn it into a 59-52 game with 10 to play.
Greece gave it their all in the last 10 minutes, but never made it closer than -5, meaning it was smooth sailing the rest of the way for the world champs.
Game hero
With Greece blitzing Dennis Schroder from all over the floor, it was time for Franz Wagner to take over the game. He was not shy about it, at all, going at one of Europe's toughest defenders in Kostas Papanikolaou, and ending up with a team-high in points scored.
Younger Wagner finished the game with 18 points, done on 8-of-17 shooting.
Honorable mentions: Schroder with 13 points and 8 assists, Isaac Bonga with 9 points and 6 rebounds. Germany were a +22 team with Bonga on the floor.
Stats don't lie
Remember how Greece had 16 of their first 18 points of the game coming from the paint? They finished with 32, and Germany ended up winning that part of the game by eight points.
Bottom line
They keep delivering. They finished third at the FIBA EuroBasket 2022, they won the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, and now they have another major achievement off the list, reaching the Semi-Finals of the Olympics for the first time ever.
If you looked at those three major FIBA Events, Germany has now won 13 games in a row.
They will play France or Canada in the Semis.
Greece can be proud of their effort all summer long, starting with the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament they won at home. Coach Spanoulis built a foundation for something special with this team.
Giannis Antetokounmpo signed out of the Olympics with 22 points.
They said
The chemistry makes us special - Johannes Thiemann
"The chemistry makes us special. Coach, when he took over, he asked us for commitment for three years, to accept the roles he gave us, and to keep the team together. And we kept the team almost the same for three straight years now, that's huge for us. We found our roles, we play together and know everybody on the court. We've done a really good job with that." - Johannes Thiemann, Germany
"We started well the game, the game plan was going great, and in general in the first half we did a great job, we kept them low scoring, but in the third quarter we lost our concentration defensively, gave them a chance to open up the game. They have quality, they have great players, when they had the chance to open it up, we couldn't come back. I'm proud of our guys. We competed with four elite teams of global basketball, and we looked each of them straight in the eyes. Maybe this is a good way to start for the next few years to come." - Kostas Papanikolaou, Greece
"I was struggling the whole game. Team carried us, Franz Wagner did a great job, everybody who came off the bench brought that energy because 11am game is tough. We were down 12 in the first quarter, but we got it even by half, so we said we just gotta keep playing for 40 minutes. It's a long game. That's what we did. Greece is a great team, but we did a great job competing for 40 minutes." - Dennis Schroder, Germany
We played incredible defense - Coach Spanoulis
"We expected Germany would come back. We were there, we played hard, we played incredible defense, I don't remember Germany having these kind of problems on their offense, but our defense was elite." - Greece head coach Vassilis Spanoulis
"I'm very proud of the players, for everything that we've done this summer. Next step is to have the same kind of approach, for the love of the country, for the pride. Basketball-wise, we need to play the same defense because this is in the DNA of the Greek guys, we have IQ, we have good players in every position. It's a matter of details, we could've easily been in the Semi-Finals this year. Maybe next year." - coach Spanoulis on the entire path back to the Olympics and the Quarter-Finals
Quick notes
Germany won the Quarter-Finals for the first time ever, this was their fourth time that they reached this phase
Germany are the first team to win a knockout round game at the Olympics after being down by 10 points at the end of the first quarter
Germany held Greece to 63 points, their lowest number in points scored since they had 62 against Australia in 1996
Dennis Schroder has 35 assists now, only Leon Wood had more assists than Schroder in his first four game at the Olympics (37 in 1984)
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 20 or more in each of his four games at the Olympics, he is only the sixth player to had that kind of a run, and the first one since 1980, when Oscar Schmidt and Ian Davies both did it
FIBA