Germany quickly gained momentum and comfortably defeated Japan with a score of 81-63 in the opening game of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. The game took place on Friday night at the Okinawa Arena.
Although the German team initially faced some opposition from the Japanese team, the turning point came when Dennis Schroder made a jump shot that ignited an impressive 11-0 scoring spree.
This run gave Germany a commanding lead of 21-8 with just 2 minutes and 23 seconds left in the first quarter.
“We had a lot of high energy and we weren’t doing a lot of the things we practiced on the defensive end,” said Tom Hovasse, Head Coach of Japan. “We just weren’t playing smart – we were playing with great energy, we weren’t executing what our game plan was.
“And I think when Josh picked up his second foul, combined that with Yuta – he’s missed 10 days because of a sprained ankle, so he was just trying to get back to condition, and he got tired. So I had to pull both of those and we just kind of got a little bit out of rhythm.”
