The Germany-Turkey EuroBasket rivalry continues.
Dirk Bauermann's side beat Turkey 66-57 in the cross-elimination round game at EuroBasket 2005 after losing to them in Istanbul in the 2001 semi-finals.
This time out, there is once again plenty at stake as Germany can advance to the qualifying round while Turkey need a victory to stay alive in Group C.
Last Time Out: Turkey were man-handled by Lithuania 86-69 while Germany won their group opener, needing over-time to knock off the Czech Republic 83-78.
Key Match-up: Germany off-guard Demond Greene worked very hard defending Jiri Welsch.
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| Greene faces a tough test as he goes up against Ibrahim Kutluay | ||||
Statistics: Dirk Nowitzki scored 35 points despite not really finding much of a rhythm offensively. Turkey need to keep him pressure and try to disrupt him. Another statistic is 10 minutes - the amount of time Mehmet Okur played for Turkey, without any foul problems.
X-Factor: Ersan Ilyasova started the game for Turkey but finished playing just eight minutes despite just three fouls. The youngster has plenty of game and can help the Turks, but it remains to be seen how much he will be allowed to try to do so.
Sounding Off: German center Patrick Femerling about the match-up against Turkey: "They are a complete team. They can run, they can post up. The quality of the forwards and guards is as good as any team in Europe. If they get a good rhythm in the game, then it will be tough to stop them, so we have to be careful and defend well and get everybody involved right away to have a good rhythm to beat them."