MANILA (Philippines) – It all comes down to this. Germany and Serbia reached the final of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, setting up an electric match after their quick victories in the semifinals.
The match starts at 14:40 CET, 20:40 local time at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines.
Key duel: The obvious one, Dennis Schroder against Bogdan Bogdanovic. The two men who made their mark on the Atlanta Hawks are now destined for greatness with the national teams, one small step away from taking the entire nation to basketball’s Mount Everest.
Schroder had a perfect bounce-back game in the semifinals, after a nightmare quarterfinal with 22 missed field goals. It wasn’t just about scoring, it was about making the right plays at the right time against the United States and hitting the double point in the final minute.
Overall, he has 17.9 points, 6.7 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in this World Cup, making his case for winning the MVP award pretty clear.
Bogdanovic has also been fantastic for Serbia. Although in theory he does not play the same position as Schroder, they will have similar roles when it comes to making the right plays and leading their team from the defensive zone, being the generals of the field.
Bogdan scores 19.4 points per day, with 4.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals, challenging the most steals in World Cup bragging rights. He’s also flirting with the magical 50-40-90 shooting split, going 52-40-84 after the first seven games in the Philippines.
X Factors– In addition to the obvious stars like Bogdanovic, Schroder, Nikola Milutinov or Franz Wagner, look for the heroes of the semi-finals to step up again. Andreas Obst has been the talk of the world after earning the TCL Player of the Game award against the United States; If he can produce that spark once again, Germany could celebrate their first World Cup trophy.
Coach Svetislav Pesic is known for his high-intensity defense, so his X-factors will be Ognjen Dobric and Aleksa Avramovic. These two will try to pressure Schroder and Maodo Lo the same way they tortured Rokas Jokubaitis, Vaidas Kariniauskas, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and everyone else over the past two and a half weeks.
Statistics don’t lie: There is nothing between these two teams. Nothing! The margins are so close that it is almost impossible to pick a winning statistic for either team. Serbia scores more points in the transition, but after seeing Germany accelerate alongside the United States, do you really want to compete with them?
Germany excels at second-chance points, but if you watched Serbia’s performance against Canada, you know that second-chance points barely exist because of the way Milutinov and his teammates control the rebounds. Statistics don’t lie, they say it will be impossible to predict.
Past confrontations: Serbia and Germany played only once in FIBA Basketball World Cup history, back in 2010, when Milenko Tepic’s layup fell short in a double-overtime game in Kayseri, Turkey, meaning Germany celebrated a 82-81 victory.
They faced each other in two FIBA EuroBasket games. Serbia won both, 68-66 in Germany in 2015 and 75-64 in Lithuania in 2011. From the 2015 teams, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Nikola Milutinov, Maodo Lo, Niels Giffey, Dennis Schroder and Johannes Voigtmann are still here.
They said: “We talked about it in the locker room after the game, it’s a great victory (over the United States), but we’re not where we want to be yet. This group of players wants to win gold.” Need more. I have no idea (how to approach the game against Serbia). We were focused on the United States 100 percent, we haven’t seen Serbia play. Coach Pesic is a friend, a great coach, one of the best coaches in Europe. of all times.” – Gordie Herbert, Germany coach
“This will be very interesting. I still feel part of German basketball, without a doubt. I am always happy for German basketball and I still live in Germany, over the years I only had positive experiences there. “I say that I did a lot for German basketball and it makes me happy that we are facing Germany.” – Svetislav Pesic, coach of Serbia
FIBA
2023-09-10 01:09:18
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