PHOTO GALLERY
GAME STATISTICS
GermanySlovenia
17/60FG M/A25/52
14/41 (34.1%) FG2P M/A19/39 (48.7%)
3/19 (15.8%) FG3P M/A6/13 (46.2%)
10/18 (55.6%) FT M/A21/27 (77.8%)
33 (13-20) Reb (O-D)42 (8-34)
4Ass11
13TO11
4ST4
4BS5
24PF22
47Pts77
logo
47-77
( 9-30, 13-15, 12-18, 13-14)
0
10 September 2007 21:30h
Madrid (ESP)
logo
GAME STATISTICSGAME STATISTICS
PLAY BY PLAYPLAY BY PLAY

TEAM LEADERS
Dirk Nowitzki16Pts22Matjaz Smodis
Dirk Nowitzki8Reb7
7
Radoslav Nesterovic
Goran Dragic
Dirk Nowitzki
Patrick Femerling
Steffen Hamann
Robert Garrett
1
1
1
1
Ass5Jaka Lakovic
GAME REPORT
10 September 2007

Matjaz Smodis led three players in double figure scoring with 22 points as Slovenia remained undefeated at the 2007 EuroBasket with a 77-47 thrashing of Germany to set up their top-of-Group F clash with Lithuania - a showdown of the final two perfect teams in Madrid.

Radoslav Nesterovic tallied 13 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots and Jaka Lakovic collected 12 points and five assists for the winners, who improved to 4-0.

Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)
Nowitzki was the only player to score in double-digits for Germany.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 16 points and had eight rebounds to lead Germany, who shot just 28% (17-of-60) for the game.

Ademola Okulaja was the next best scorer for Germany with five points.

"We played very well tonight. We didn't expect the game to turn out how it did, but we still had to play hard until the end," said Lakovic.

When asked if he expected the Slovenians to be undefeated after playing Germany, the Barcelona guard said: "No, but then again we didn't expect to be undefeated before this game either. But we go game by game and don't look too far ahead."

"We stopped Nowitzki and their shooters," said Slovenia coach Ales Pipan.

"We played extremely good on defense, and played very good on rebounds. We deserved the win tonight, and we were the better team on court."

The Germans, on the other hand, were desolate.

"There's really not much to say. It was a horrible first quarter, maybe the worst first quarter I've ever seen from the German team since I started to coach them," said German coach Dirk Bauermann.

"Not only didn't we score but we were also terrible on defense. Once you are having a bad start like that, down by 21 after 10 minutes, it's almost impossible to come back. I don't know why it happened. It was really disappointing. But today isn't Wednesday. On Wednesday we play a championship game for the fourth place (against Italy)."

"There's no excuse or explanation for what happened today. We all embarrassed ourselves. Games like that, as bad as they are, I don't think they define who you are or what you are. What defines you is the ability to bounce back, and we will bounce back."

Germany couldn't get anything going offensively in the first quarter but still trailed only 13-7 when Slovenia went on a 17-2 surge to pull away by 21 points after one period, 30-9.

In the second quarter, Uros Slokar picked up where he left off from his heroics against Turkey by scoring nine straight points as Slovenia extended their lead to 39-16 midway through the period.

German coach Dirk Bauermann tried his best to find a line-up that would work.

Eventually he saw Demond Greene hit a three-pointer and Nowitzki convert a three-point play as the Germans trimmed the deficit to 20 points.

That, however, was as close as they would get the rest of the way as the advantage was back up to 23 points, 45-22, at the break with Germany shooting just 29% (9-of-31) from the floor in the first 20 mintues.

Slovenia continued to dominate in the third period as a Smodis long bomb pushed Ales Pipan's team ahead 50-22 two minutes into the half.

Bauermann's troops tried to chip away, getting the margin back down to 24 points, 52-28.

But the Slovenians remained unstoppable, increasing their lead to 30 on their way to a 63-34 cushion going into the fourth quarter.

Both coaches emptied their benches in the final 10 minutes and Slovenia never let up, even pushing the advantage to 36 points, 75-39, with 3:45 remaining.

QUOTES
10 September 2007

Slovenia:

Coach Ales Pipan: "Thanks to my players we played another good game. We won and it's very important for us, because now we secured the second position in the group."

"We stopped Nowitzki and their shooters. We played extremely good on defense, and played very good on rebounds. We deserved the win tonight, and we were the better team on the court."

"I think that we are a very good team, with a very good combination between veteran and young players. The veterans are very professional on and off the court, while the young ones really want to be and play hard."

Radoslav Nesterovic: "We came out ready to play from the start. Dirk and the other guards didn't find their way, but we don't need to celebrate too much. We have to forget about this game, it's over, and get ready for the next game against Lithuania, and even more important, the quarter-finals."

Germany:

Coach Dirk Bauermann: "There's really not much to say. It was a horrible first quarter, maybe the worst first quarter I've ever seen from the German team since I started to coach them. Not only we didn't score but we were also terrible on defense. Once you are having a bad start like that, down by 21 after 10 minutes, it's almost impossible to come back."

"I don't know why it happened. It was really disappointing. But today isn't Wednesday. On Wednesday we play a championship game for the fourth place. We play the final game to get to the quarter-finals, and I'm totally, 110% convinced, the German national team will show their true face on that game."

"There's no excuse or explanation for what happened today. We all embarrassed ourselves. Games like that, as bad as they are, I don't think they define who you are and what you are. What defines you is the ability to bounce back, and we will bounce back on the next game."

Patrick Femerling: "Congratulations to Slovenia. Everybody scored and produced for the team. They played solid defense against us, and we didn't do any of what we were suppose to do on the court, on both ends. A team like Slovenia punishes you on that. They were a better team today."

GAME PREVIEW
10 September 2007

Dirk Nowitzki's chances of making the 2008 Olympics - or at least reaching the pre-Olympic qualifiers - are slowly fading as Germany face unbeaten Slovenia desperately looking for a victory to move back on course for the quarter-finals.

The 2005 silver medalists have dropped two straight games in falling to 1-2 in Group F.

The Germans remain in fourth place (which means a spot in the quarters), but with a loss
Uros Slokar (Slovenia)
Uros Slokar stepped up to make three three-pointers in his teams win over Turkey.
they will be even with the winner of the Italy-Turkey match.

Slovenia meanwhile have already qualified for the quarter-finals.

Last time out: Slovenia stuffed Turkey 66-51 for their fourth straight win in Spain, while Germany lost to France 78-66.

Key Match-up: Nowitzki vs. the entire Slovenia team. The reigning NBA MVP has said for years that his goal is to reach the 2008 Olympics. Don't be surprised if the Dallas Mavericks star tries to carry even a larger bulk of Germany's load than he's done so far.

X-Factor: Slovenia have beaten France and Turkey despite getting just five total points from Jaka Lakovic. The Barcelona star has struggled from the three-point stripe and his ability to score - especially from the outside - could free up others to get baskets.

Stats: Three - the total number of double-digit scoring games by Germans not named Nowitzki or Ademola Okulaja - the others being Mithat Demirel (18 points against Czech Republic), Demond Greene (10 vs. Turkey) and Robert Garrett (10 against Lithuania).

Sounding off: "It's going to be tough for us. In the German national team. everyone looks up to Dirk Nowitzki. He will score his 30 or 40 points but our chances are in limiting the other guys. Dirk is such a dominant player that if you base your game on him the likelyhood is you will fail. We cannot hope that Dirk has a bad game, you cannot count on luck, because it will kill you, it will destroy you." -Slovenia big man Uros Slokar


All sponsors » Print this page Print version