The basketball World Cup semi-finals have been played. Germany and Serbia will meet in the final. The biggest pre-favorites, the USA and Canada, went to the bronze matches.
In the preconceived plans, the World Cup final was supposed to be a match between North Americans, but it turned out to be a European final. The USA and Canada will play in the bronze medal match.
– Yeah, summed up his feelings message service in X German basket icon Dirk Nowitzki.
In the last semifinal of the day, we saw amazing fireworks, which ended with Germany’s victory over the USA with a score of 113–111. Already in the opening period, the pace of scoring was intense, when the USA led the match 60–59 halfway through the match.
The USA has won Olympic gold Four times in a row since 2008. Its most recent world championships are in 2010 and 2014, but it was also disappointed in the previous World Cup in 2019, when France was better in the quarterfinals.
In the World Championships played since 1950, the USA has gone without a medal four times: 1970, 1978, 2002 and 2019.
In the day’s semifinal, Germany took a decisive lead in the third quarter, winning it 35–24. In the fourth period, the USA was still at its best down to a point, 107–108, with 1:35 left on the clock.
After that Andreas Obst sunk a triple, Isaac Bonga at the other end of your block by Mikal Bridges lay-up and then Germany’s number one star Dennis Schroeder stretched the lead to six points at the other end.
Obst scored 24 points in the match – a tough performance from a man who averaged 6 points in the Euroleague at Bayern Munich.
Orlando Magic’s NBA man Franz Wagner scored 22 points. Wagner, one of Germany’s most important players, watched the start of the games from the sidelines due to a leg injury, but recovered to make the playoffs.
Daniel Theis scored 21 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Los Angeles Lakers guard Schröder struggled in the quarterfinals against Latvia, but now he has 17 rebounds and 9 assists.
Germany has won both of its playoff matches by two points. In the semifinals, it defeated Latvia 81–79, but Latvia’s star player Davis Bertans made a three-point attempt in the last seconds.
More than 20 points made it to the USA Anthony Edwards (21 points, 8 rebounds) as well Austin Reaves (21 points).
In a tight game, Germany hit 68% of two-pointers and 43% of three-pointers, while USA had 65 and 48. Rebounds Germany took 30-28.
Both teams shot brilliantly in the semi-final, but from the situations after the offensive rebounds, Germany scored as many as 25 points, while the USA was limited to 8 points. In the last two minutes, Germany played extremely maturely.
Germany reached the World Cup final for the first time. Its best World Cup achievement is a bronze medal in 2002. That’s when Germany was coached Henrik Dettmann.
From 2021, Germany has been coached by a Canadian-Finnish Gordon Herbert. 64-year-old Herbert received Finnish citizenship while playing in Finland from 1982 to 1994. Herbert has coached Korihai in Finland and Honka in Espoo.
Serbian clinic knocks out Canada
In the first semifinal of the day, Serbia put on a real “basketball clinic” against Canada. Serbia marched to the final by winning 95-86.
Serbia’s victory can be considered a huge surprise, as the biggest advance favorites for the World Cup in the experts’ papers have been the USA, Canada and Germany in that order.
Serbia has played a great tournament, although it is missing perhaps the best player in the world at the moment Nikola Jokic. The 28-year-old Jokic led the Denver Nuggets to the NBA championship last season. Jokic has been chosen twice as the NBA’s MVP, i.e. the most valuable player.
In addition to this, Serbia is missing from the World Cup floor, among other things, a young NBA promise, 21 years old Alexey Pokushevskywho signed a contract with the NBA club Oklahoma City Thunder in the summer Vasilije Micic and in the 2021-2022 season celebrated the NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors Nemanja Bjelica.
Serbia/Yugoslavia has won World Cup gold in 1998 and 2002. In 2014, it lost to the USA in the final. In last year’s European Championships, Jokic was involved – and Serbia missed the quarterfinals after losing to Italy.
– No Nikola Jokic, no problem, news agency AP summed up Serbia’s tournament for now.
Having coached at the top of Europe for decades by Svetislav Pesic the group received harsh criticism after the loss to Italy. The now 74-year-old Pesic also showed how well he still prepares his team for a demanding top match.
– It doesn’t matter who isn’t here. It’s all about this group, who’s wearing this Serbian shirt. We never give up. We will fight until the end. It’s in our blood, added Serbia after the semi-final Marko Guduric.
The title of the most valuable player of the World Cup tournament is firmly on the line Bogdan Bogdanovic. Atlanta Hawks’ 31-year-old and 196-centimeter shooting guard / wing player scored 23 points, grabbed 4 rebounds and made 3 assists in the Canadian semifinals.
Ognjen Dobric and Nikola Milutinov accompanied with 16 points. Representing Serbian Partizan Aleksa Avramovic did a great job with Canada’s playmaking star, the Oklahoma City Thunder of Shai-Gilgeous-Alexander in the blackout. The Canadian was 15 points short of his tournament average of 25 points.
Serbia is by far the best shooting team in the tournament – it has sunk 56 percent of all shots in the game, followed by the USA (53.8%) and Lithuania (53.2%). In the semi-final, Serbia’s shot success rate was 62.1, Canada’s 48.2.
Canada’s best scorer on 23 surfaces in the semifinals was from the New York Knicks RJ Barrett. Canada’s dreams of the first World Cup final were dashed.
– Kudos to Serbia. They played a great game. They played hard, physically, they are very well coached and disciplined, Barrett admitted.
Despite Serbia’s toughness, it was Canada that got into foul trouble. Gilgeous-Alexander was held to just five points in the first half, but had three fouls. Dillon Brooks and Kelly Olynyk picked up their fourth personal foul early.
“We knew we had to set the tempo because if they get into a rhythm, they’re impossible to guard. We had to strike first, described Milutinov.
Although Serbia’s great defense completely stifled Canada’s attack, especially early in the match, Canada’s head coach by Jordi Fernandez according to him, his team’s attack was just fine.
– We were terrible in defense. When the opponent hits 62 percent of their shots and 45 percent of their threes, something is not done well and we were not prepared well enough.
The Serbian tournament took a wild turn in the opening group when the big winger Borisa Simanic, 25, was elbowed in the side against South Sudan. Simanic was rushed to a hospital in Manila, where the kidney damaged by the impact was removed. Simanic is still in the hospital and there is no information about the continuation of his career.
– I want to dedicate this victory to him. Hope to see him with us soon. I just want to say that I hope he feels a little better knowing he has a medal. I know it’s not important, but I hope we made him happy today, Guduric commented.
The bronze medal match between the USA and Canada will be played on Sunday, September 10. at 11:30 and the final between Germany and Serbia on Sunday at 15:40. Urheilu follows the World Cup in this article.