LILLE (France) - On a day when the offense wasn't flowing like usual, the man behind the wheel took it upon himself to put the W into "reigning World Champs."
Dennis Schroder was brilliant, enjoying the weight of the nation on his shoulders, as he pushed Germany to an 86-73 win over Brazil.
With that result, both Germany and France are through to the Quarter-Finals, and they've also pulled Canada to the elite eight because even if Canada finish third in Group A, they would still be ahead of Brazil or Japan in the battle for the best two third-placed team tickets.
Turning point
Brazil were not intimidated by the fact that Germany deserved a lot of praise over the past three summers or so, and they came out ready to play. Germany committed a total of five turnovers in their game against Japan, Brazil made them throw it away six times in the second quarter alone.
With Vitor Benite and Yago Santos running the offense, the score was tied at the half.
That's when Dennis Schroder decided he had had enough. He dropped his usual role of distribution and went for scoring offensively, scoring 18 points in the first three quarters.
He also went on chasing Vitor Benite around screens, letting out a huge scream as he forced him into a shot clock violation, just to prove how much it means to him getting the defensive stops for this team, too.
Germany held Brazil to 11 points in the third, scored 20 at the other end, pushing the game to double digits and avoiding a dramatic finish.
Game hero
Schroder had 20 points, made 7-of-13 shots from the field, including 4-of-9 from beyond the arc, with 6 assists, 4 steals and 3 rebounds also to his name.
Honorable mention: Isaac Bonga with 15 points in 21 minutes off the bench.
Stats don't lie
It's tough to defeat Germany if you're careless with the ball. Brazil committed 20 turnovers, paving the way for Bonga and company to run the other way, not allowing coach Aco Petrovic to set his defense and slow the game down.
Bottom line
Germany looked vulnerable, but only for 10 minutes of the second quarter. But their team-first mentality got them through once again, with Andreas Obst (14pts) playing a big role in the first quarter, and Franz Wagner (17pts) doing the same in the fourth.
Brazil are a different team when Yago is healthy and driving, because he's also driving the defenses crazy with decision making, do they help on his layups and prevent the kickouts, or do they live with his scoring and stay at home in rotations.
Germany struggled making the right reads at times, allowing him to get 18 points and 8 assists, but with Bonga on him, he also had 5 turnovers.
Brazil will now play Japan knowing they need to win to have a chance of making the Quarter-Finals.
They said
"He was pretty tough, he's a really fast guy so as a shooter when you're coming off of screens, you don't know if he's coming with you. He's gonna go around the picks because he has fast legs, so it's tough. We tried working as a team to make him make a mistake, but you know the qualify of some players. If they're in the game, even on defense it's tough to get by them." - Vitor Benite talking about Schroder's defense
"No time to be sad, think as a robot, see the mistakes and just work on it. We're gonna go against Japan like we're the best team in the world. Play tough, because we still have a chance." - Benite again, on Brazil's chances to advance
"We still can get a lot better." - coach Herbert after Germany won their first two games
"We still can get a lot better. We're competing hard, tonight our defense was good except for the second quarter, but I still think there's a lot of room for improvement, which is good." - Germany head coach Gordie Herbert
"(Qualifying for Paris) is good, but we wanna win the group. We got one more big game, that's what we should focus on now." - Franz Wagner, Germany
"He's unbelievable. We've seen that a couple of times now in the last couple of summers. Just a great competitor, he wants to do anything to win." - Wagner on Schroder's defense
"It's gonna be 27,000 people booing me when I touch the ball" - Schroder looking forward to the matchup with France
"Nah, it's always a team effort. We did a good job coming out in the second half just being aggressive on the defensive end. They did a great job in the second quarter, they scored 30 points, we talked about it with the coach, we have to get stops on the defensive end and then run, play fast, and that's what we did and I'm glad we won the game." - Dennis Schroder, Germany
"He hit some tough shots and some open ones as well. Sometimes I like to chase people off the screens, I had to cut him off a little bit, he still hit some threes, but I'm glad we won the game." - Schroder on his matchup with Benite
"It's gonna be 27,000 people booing me when I touch the ball, so I'm really looking forward to that." - Schroder on playing against France
Quick notes
First time Germany won back-to-back games at the Olympics since 1992
Yago Santos is the first player combining for 18 points and 8 assists off the bench since the start of the 2016 tournament
This was the first Olympic game in which four different players had 14 or more points for Germany
Franz Wagner is the first German player to have scored 16+ points in each of his first two games at the Olympics
Franz and Schroder had 4 steals each in this one, falling just one short of the German record, as Henrik Rodl had 5 steals against Spain in 1992
FIBA