World Cup champion Germany unbeaten and rolling into basketball quarterfinals at Paris Olympics

PARIS — Unbeaten at last year’s World Cup on the way to the gold medal. Unbeaten so far at the Paris Olympics. No team in this tournament has better defensive numbers, either.

And Germany doesn’t care if anyone notices that, either.

“I don’t really focus on that kind of stuff,” Germany coach Gordie Herbert said. “Maybe it helps us restore a little bit of a chip on our shoulder.”

The Germans — both last summer at the World Cup and this summer at the Paris Games — sure play like they have copious chips on all their shoulders. They’re brash, they’re tough, they’re confident and they’re already assured of their best showing ever at an Olympics.

Now, they want more. Much more. The U.S. is the gold medal favorite now that the men’s basketball tournament has shifted to Paris. That’s understandable with the Americans winning the last four Olympic golds, but Germany fully believes that it can beat anybody in the world — and the results from the last two summers back that up.

“We’ve always been confident, and we’re not here to lose,” Germany forward Moritz Wagner said. “I think it’s a big, big characteristic of this group.”

Germany is 11-0 in games that matter most over the last two summers, the World Cup and now the Olympics. It played France, a road game before 27,000 people, for the top spot in their Olympic group on Friday night and absolutely blew the hosts out in the first half on the way to an easy win. It has a rising NBA star in Franz Wagner, a savvy veteran point guard in Dennis Schroder providing the leadership, a big man in Daniel Theis whose game seems perfectly suited for the physical rigors of international play, and a confidence that has been brewing for a year now.

“When you have someone like Dennis, that’s his mindset this summer,” Franz Wagner said. “He’s not playing for anything other than gold. So, I think that raises everybody else’s level.”

This run really started in Abu Dhabi last summer, and weirdly, with a loss.

It was Germany’s final exhibition game before the World Cup and it was facing the U.S. The Germans took an 18-point lead, then watched it all slip away in a barrage led by Anthony Edwards. The Americans escaped that night, then marveled afterward.

“They’re really good,” U.S. coach Steve Kerr said that night of the Germans, then paused a bit before repeating with even more inflection on his words. “They’re really good.”

Franz Wagner said that was the night where Germany knew it was on to something.

“If I had to say one game, it was the game before the World Cup when we were up double digits on Team USA in the third and kind of let it slip away,” he said.

Germany beat the U.S. in the World Cup semifinals at Manila in 2023, then nearly beat the U.S. again — this time, with a much more star-studded American roster, no less — last month in an exhibition at London just before coming to Paris in a game where LeBron James had to take over down the stretch.

Losing to the U.S. in Abu Dhabi fueled the Germans. It seems like losing in London might have done it again. The biggest deficit Germany has faced so far in these Olympics is four points, and it has trailed for less than 4 ½ of their 120 minutes of on-court time. It has held teams to an Olympic-best 41% shooting, just a smidge better than the U.S., and the Germans are allowing a mere 73.7 points per game so far in France.

“It’s the biggest tournament in the world,” Schroder said. “When you play with those guys, any competition — no disrespect, but those guys in the locker room, it’s always the same feeling when we go out there and compete. It doesn’t matter if it’s a preseason game or any big-tournament game, because everybody’s so high IQ, high-character guys.”

Germany faces Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece in the quarterfinals on Tuesday in Paris. Win that game, and either France or unbeaten Canada awaits in the semifinals on Thursday. And then if the Germans get to the final, they could see the U.S. there with a gold medal on the line.

“I think we’ve kind of got a target on our backs after last year’s success,” Theis said. “Everybody wants to beat the world champions. I think one of our biggest strengths is that we never underestimate any opponent. We take nobody lightly.”

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games