Germany advanced to the EuroBasket quarterfinals earlier today by beating Portugal, but the experience is somewhat bittersweet for Franz Wagner because his brother isn’t involved, writes Edvinas Jablonskis of BasketNews. Moritz Wagner, normally a regular part of the German national team, is still recovering from an ACL tear in his left knee that he suffered in December.
“He’s now doing some media stuff, I think, for German television as well,” Franz said. “So he’s watching all the games for sure. And obviously, we talk to him a bunch, so I know that he would love to be here.”
Moritz has been representing Germany for more than a decade, dating back to under-18 tournaments. He was part of the 2023 squad that went undefeated while capturing the gold medal at the World Cup, and he earned MVP honors in the qualifying tournament for the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Franz, who led the team with 16 points in the win over Portugal, said his brother has been offering encouraging words from the sidelines.
“Just have fun, go out there and enjoy the game,” he said. “Obviously, there’s pressure and all this stuff involved, but at the end of the day, we’re playing the game.”
There’s more from EuroBasket:
- After posting a triple-double last Sunday against Belgium, Luka Doncic narrowly missed another one in Thursday’s win over Israel, according to Eurohoops. The Slovenian star, who finished with 37 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, said he and his teammates are confident about their medal chances. “We’re hoping for the medal. We think we can win a medal,” he said. “I know a lot of others don’t, but we believe in us. Everybody that’s here, we all believe, everyone in everyone.”
- Shane Larkin, who became a star in Turkey after a brief NBA career, wants to pay back the country by winning a medal, per Samih Tuna of Eurohoops. “If I’m part of the team that went out there and did something special, bring a medal back home to Turkiye, it would mean everything to me,” Larkin said.
- Serbian head coach Svetislav Pesic blamed a lack of physicality for today’s upset loss to Finland, BasketNews relays. Finland collected 20 offensive rebounds, resulting in numerous second-chance points. “We can look for excuses, but the reality is that you need to be in better physical shape at a tournament like this,” Pesic said. “We weren’t. Several players played through injuries. We also had a virus in the team — an illness. Nikola Jovic didn’t practice. Those things are not excuses, but when you play against a team like this, at a tournament like this, you need to be physically stronger. You can’t say the players didn’t give what they could — you can always give more, but it just didn’t happen.”
Jokic was pretty great offensively as usual. But defensively he was pretty terrible & that’s a big reason his team lost. Finland targeted him back to back down the stretch & kept finding success with that strategy. The last 10pts (at least) were scored on him & he was guarding their least talented scorer.
Tbh I sorta figured Serbia not having a Black pg (unlike most of the other successful teams in this tournament) would sorta hold them back. Finland’s Black pg, Miro Little, killed the Serbian guards, especially in the 2nd half. Incredible game, monumental upset for Finland. Little leads a nice group of young Finnish players (including the electric young Miikka Muurinen) that could do bring unforeseen glory to their national team… link to m.youtube.com
Good analysis.
Jokic played his usual game, kind of: he doesn’t contest shots at the rim and doesn’t leave the ground anyway. But he occupies the space and positions himself perfectly for rebounds. He didn’t do that in this game, and Finland rebounded like mad on the offensive glass.
Finland 45 rebs (20 offensive) – Serbia 36 rebs.
Finland had 74 field goal attempts, Serbia 61. That’s the game right there.
For most of the 4th, especially the last 4,5 possessions, he was guarding Finland’s least offensive threat (Valtonen) & trying to roam/double Lauri/guard the basket while keeping an eye on his man. But his man ended up killing him on huge back to back buckets. And they targeted him on a few p&R’s as well. It was just a rough last couple games overall for the heavy favorites though tbh. The emergence of Nikola Topic & possibly a change at head coach is some things that could help this team a lot long term. Short term it will be interesting to see if they can regroup & win their remaining games & match the 9th place finish they got last time.
Meanwhile Poland is continuing the trend of top seeded teams struggling early in their 1st knockout stage game. Bosnia started the game on a 13-2 run but Poland has cut the lead to 5 early in the 2nd qtr
Speaking of trends continuing, John Roberson & Jordan Loyd (each team’s Black pg) have been the 2 best players on the court in this 1st half. Nurk & Ponitka have been great as well but Loyd (17pts 3/5 from 3pt) & Roberson (16pts 6/7 fg) have both been near perfect. Bosnia still up 4 at the break but it feels like Nurk is gonna have to have a special 2nd half for them to advance.
Any predictions on what level of impact you expect Topic to make with the Thunder?
Im not expecting much from Topic next season. Cason Wallace is 1 of the most underrated/best 2way guards in the league & Topic is firmly behind him in the pecking order. It’s conceivable that he leaps Ajay Mitchell & gets some pt but Topic’s impact will be felt moreso when Wallace leaves next summer.
I agree that joker not having a suitable point guard was Serbia’s main issue. He does not bode well with an old-school point guard that tries to organize the offense and keeps the ball in his own hands a lot. I believe that Jokic simply doesn’t need a traditional PG and views their role as a waste of precious seconds in the 24 timer, which in return frustrates joker tremendously, because it’s idiotic to not maximize your best players potential.
Once bogi was injured, the coach should’ve given those minutes to a different shooter instead of micic. In Denver, their so-called point guard – Jamal Murray is a capable passer, but an unbelievable scorer.. and they obviously have a lot of success with that formula.
Another issue is the lack of athleticism on the wings and not having a lob threat in the Dunker spot, but this is by far less of an issue as defenses crowd the paint so much anyway in Eurobasket so Jokić will just shoot the ball and crashed the board when he’s in near the paint.
It was painful to see micic ruin another Jokic campaign. It’s not his fault. It’s the coaching..
Unfortunately, the former Euro league MVP cannot look good beside Jokić. It’s not like Jokić didn’t try – It’s just not the optimal lineup to put around him.
Celtics had both Shane and Mo. Thought getting rid, I mean trading, Mo Wagner was a shame but I forget who we got in return. Mo boards, can shoot threes and has that enthusiasm I think helps teams, but if somehow it was Derrick White we got in return then it’s all good. Can’t win every move.