LILLE (France) - More than 27,000 fans came to the Pierre Mauroy Stadium, hoping to see France put on a show. Instead, they witnessed Franz go off.
Germany won the game 85-71 thanks to a huge game by Franz Wagner, with the usual help from Dennis Schroder. The final standings in this group: Germany 3-0, France 2-1, Brazil 1-2, and Japan 0-3.
Turning point
The arena was packed an hour before the game started, with the atmosphere boiling after good news and medals won by other French athletes in other events at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
When the basketball team opened up an early lead, it seemed like the crowd was in for a memorable day of French sport. But the world champs had other ideas.
"I thought our defense in the first half was outstanding, and from there we kinda took off. I thought we did a really good job on Wemby, Fournier and Batum, and it was a team effort, it wasn't one guy, it was a complete team effort," coach Gordon Herbert explained Germany's first half.
Germany's physicality bothered France, especially in the second quarter, the turning point of this game, when they held them to nine points and took a 21-point lead to the break.
Franz Wagner was unstoppable, opening up the floor by hitting his first two three-pointers of the day, after going just 2-of-14 from the same distance in the first two games.
And you know what open floor means for this team. The ball was flowing, Dennis Schroder and the younger Wagner kept driving inside to combine for 31 first half points between the two of them. The entire French team had - just 27.
It was all smooth sailing from then on, even when France cut the gap to -12 in the fourth quarter with consecutive dunks, they were never within range.
Game heroes
Franz Wagner had 26 points, shooting 8-of-15 from the field, and 8-of-8 from the free throw line, with 5 rebounds. He was breath-taking.
Schroder scored 26 points and dished out 9 assists, connecting three straight decisive passes and five points to keep France at bay when they were on their fourth quarter run.
Stats don't lie
France's 10th turnover was the difference maker. Because that was their first one in the game, after 38 minutes, that wasn't also a German steal.
When Germany get 10 steals in a single game, they are impossible to stop.
Bottom line
Germany are now through as the group winners, but at 3-0 and +47, they also know they will be one of the top two seeds in the Quarter-Finals draw on Saturday, because they are already better than at least one group winner (Canada, 3-0, +20).
The draw will be done from four pots of two teams, and with this result, Germany know they will face one of the two teams with the worst record among the eight Quarter-Finalists.
For more information about the draw:
As for France, at 2-1 and +2, they are through to the Quarter-Finals, but will face a tough draw now. Isaia Cordinier and Evan Fournier had 10 points on the day, while Victor Wembanyama finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
They said
"They played better, they executed better, they were more aggressive, they were just better tonight. It matters that we didn't win the group. You want to win every game that you play, obviously. You gotta work on execution, you gotta work on all those things and tonight obviously wasn't good enough." - Evan Fournier, France
Today was a good step forward - Coach Herbert
"The first two games, we struggled a little bit at times, and we're still in the process of getting better as a team, and today was a good step forward. Just get better. We have to build on this, obviously when you go to the Quarter-Finals, it's do or die." - Germany head coach Gordron Herbert
"Be the aggressor, have an aggressive mentality - Moritz Wagner
"Don't focus on the name too much, just on the player. Be in the moment, trust the teammates behind you and generally with all those guys, be the aggressor. Have an aggressive mentality, understand who you are and who you got behind you, and there's a very high level of trust in this team." - Moritz Wagner on the defensive plan against France
"That'd be awesome, but one game at a time. I thought we got better with each game, which was good, and hopefully the Quarter-Finals will be our best game yet." - Franz Wagner, Germany, on the possibility of winning a medal
"The second one. I don't know who was there, honestly, but... The second one, I don't even remember the first one, I think the second one was better." - Franz Wagner on which of his two poster dunks felt better
This is lack of maturity - Coach Collet
"We said this morning that we mustn't play isolation against them. Because we have data and we knew they were the best team to defend this kind of situation, but despite that, we did it many times in the first half, and this is a lack of maturity." - France head coach Vincent Collet on the offensive troubles in the first half
Quick notes
Germany have won three games in a row, their longest winning sequence at the Olympics ever
France are the second team ever to have had three consecutive games with 6+ blocks at the Olympics since the start of the 2000 tournament
Germany made 12 shots from three-point range, since the start of the 2020 Olympics, they made 10 or more threes in each of their seven encounters
This was Rudy Gobert's third game with 4+ blocks at the Olympics, only Stojko Vrankovic has more such games (5)
Franz Wagner and Dennis Schroder scored 26 points each, only the second time in the 21st century that a pair of teammates had 25+ in the same game at the Olympics, following Andres Nocioni and Facundo Campazzo for Argentina against Brazil in 2016. However, that game went into double overtime.
FIBA