REIGNING basketball World Champions Germany had answers to every Japan rally to take a 97-77 victory in Group B action of the 2024 Paris Olympics Men’s Basketball tournament at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in France.
The Germans never trailed in the game as they opened strong behind the duo of Daniel Theis and Franz Wagner, before dousing cold water on every uprising attempt from the Akatsuki Five.
But it wasn’t until the fourth quarter where the Germans totally broke the game wide open as Moe joined his brother Franz to push ‘Die Mannschaft’ to an opening day flyer.
Franz Wagner led the way for the World Champs as he finished with 22 points on an efficient 9-17 shooting from the clip. Theis had himself a perfect game of 18 points on 7-7 shooting from the field while Moe Wagner added 15.
Dennis Schroder, the World Cup MVP, had a heyday orchestrating for his team as he finished with 13 points and 12 assists.
Los Angeles Lakers star Rui Hachimura top scored for Japan with 20 points, but made just four of his 19 attempts from the field in a dismal shooting night. Fellow NBA veteran Yuta Watanabe chipped in 16.
As a team, the only Asian squad in the tournament struggled mightily from the field as they just made 24 of their 66 attempts from the field, good for just 36 percent.
Hosts France and Brazil complete the Group B – expected to be the most competitive group of the three divisions in this tournament.
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