Germany – Finland

World Cup Group Stage Round 3
Okinawa, August 29, 9:30 CET

Germany is in a perfect position to secure first place in the group with a victory over Finland, ahead of the next stage of the World Cup.
Behind the Germans is a great victory against the favorites Australia. Germany reduced the team with nine NBA players to only 16 points in the last quarter and showed that they are ready to play excellent defense against the best.
On the other hand, Finland disappointed - the defeat against Japan 98:88 on Sunday was completely unexpected and eliminated this team from the fight for the next stage of the World Cup. The atmosphere and team hemistry in the Finnish squad is completely destroyed, the team was heavily criticized in the domestic public for losing to outsiders. It is clear that the Finns will not have a strong motive for the match with Germany.
The Germans are in an impressive series of results - since the beginning of the month, counting the preliminary games, they have six wins and two losses, one of which was in overtime against Canada, which is in the narrowest circle of favorites for the gold medal. The victories over Australia 85:83 and Japan 81:63 are proof that this national team pays more and more attention to good defense, which will be a trend in the continuation of the championship.
German stars – playmaker Schroder, as well as the Wagner brothers who play for Orlando Magic in the NBA, impressed in the previous two games at the World Cup. However, the team is significantly less effective when the main players are not on the court. If the Germans settle the duel with Finland early, which is expected, their NBA stars will spend the rest of the match on the bench. Therefore, we should not expect a match with a lot of points. It is easier to predict a victory with a double-digit margin of favorites.
Finland lost against Australia 98:72 and seemed completely powerless. This national team has obvious problems in defense, in both World Cup games they conceded almost 100 points, and against the Japanese, as many as 35 in the fourth quarter. The recovery of the NBA star Markkanen, in time for these matches, did not help - the famous power forward simply does not have real support among his teammates, who cannot accompany him even with at least solid defense.
In the previous eight games (these are all the games that this national team played during 2023), only once did Finland receive less than 80 points. Germany is a dominant attacking team that has an exceptional opportunity to exploit these weaknesses of its rivals - already by halftime. After that, routine work is expected, on the way to a convincing victory of the favorites.