DEnnis Schröder cheered, he kept keenly discussing with his teammates and screamed his heart out on the sidelines – but it was no use: without their injured captain, the German basketball players got a beating in the Supercup final. Almost worse: Concerns about Schröder and Daniel Theis, who has also proven himself in the NBA, are growing.
He “won’t miss out on the home European Championships, which begin on September 1st,” Schröder tried to appease after the hefty 56:83 (31:38) against fellow European Championship favorites Serbia in Hamburg. It was “good” to “play against one of the top favorites at the European Championship. We have to take the defeat into training and see what we can improve on.”
“They hurt us a lot in the basket”
But one thing is already clear: Schröder, who was chosen as the leader, must at least fit for the upcoming World Cup qualifier in Sweden on Thursday. Just like Theis, who even threatens to fail for the European Championship tournament.
Frustration over the first defeat in the fourth European Championship preparatory game dominated among the teammates. Johannes Voigtmann at MagentaSport described the atmosphere in the dressing room with the words “that’s how it works”: “It was the first real endurance test. We didn’t pass that. We have to improve in all areas.”
National coach Gordon Herbert said: “They hurt us a lot on the basket. We played good basketball in the second quarter, but unfortunately we couldn’t keep it up. We were able to learn a lot today.”
Serbia shows the borders
Without a number of regulars, the German team showed a rather bleak performance, against the quality of the Serbs around NBA MVP Nikola Jokic (22 points) it basically had no chance in the first real EM endurance test. After a sleepy first quarter (13:24), the DBB selection bit into the game and came back up to halftime – but before the end of the third quarter the game was decided at 39:56.
In this form, it will not happen with the targeted medal at the upcoming highlight of the season in their own country, Serbia clearly showed the German team, especially with this line-up, their limits. The best DBB thrower was Andreas Obst with twelve points.
Missratener Start
There was bad news for the expectant fans in Hamburg’s Volkspark even before the game: After Moritz Wagner, who will miss the European Championship due to an ankle injury, Theis (knee) and Schröder (ankle) signed off for the game at short notice.
One day after the confident semi-final win against the Czech Republic (101:90), which lost to Italy 80:96 (36:49) in the match for third place on Saturday, the German team failed to start against Serbia completely. When Maodo Lo scored the first points after more than two minutes, the guests were already up to speed. First and foremost Jokic. The Denver Nuggets star center already had eleven points on the clock when he was allowed down after eight minutes.
But also in the second half Serbia played cat and mouse with the German team in front of 6378 spectators. Youngster Franz Wagner did not come into its own as it did last time. And even Schröder, who watched the game from the bench in a fashionable black wool hat, couldn’t bring about the turning point with his loud cheers.
Recently naturalized Nick Weiler-Babb made his international debut for Germany on Saturday.
