Germany exits as Nowitzki falls short in Lithuania loss
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail
Shanghai Daily, September 13, 2011
 |
|
Dirk Nowitzki of Germany (center) comes under pressure from Lithuania's Sarunas Jasinkevicius (left), Martynas Pocius and Mantas Kalnietis (right) during their European championship game. |
Germany and its talismanic forward Dirk Nowitzki bowed out of the European championship on Sunday after a 75-84 defeat by Lithuania which sent the hosts through to the knockout stage of the competition.
Serbia, the 2009-runner-up, also reached the quarterfinals with a dramatic 68-67 over Turkey while holder Spain thumped France 96-69 after both teams had already booked their berths in the last eight.
Spain finished top of Group E and will play either Finland or Slovenia for a semifinal place, while second-placed France will meet 2005 champion Greece.
Third-placed Lithuania meets the loser of yesterday's clash between 2007 champion Russia and upstart Macedonia, the top two teams in Group F, while the winner of that match will face Serbia.
After Serbia's last-gasp win over Turkey, Germany needed to beat Lithuania by at least 11 points in Vilnius to advance while Nowitzki required 37 points to equal the all-time Eurobasket scoring record of 1,004 points held by former Greece maestro Nikos Galis.
Mavericks forward
Neither the Dallas Mavericks forward, who led the team to the 2011 National Basketball Association title, nor his Germany teammates looked likely to accomplish the tasks as Lithuania was in control from start to finish in front of a passionate 11,000-strong home crowd.
"Nowitzki is maybe the greatest player Europe has ever produced," Germany coach Dirk Bauermann, who steered the team to a runner-up finish in 2005, told a news conference.
"He had a very short break after a long season in the NBA, but he dragged himself here and gave everything he could, he is a role model for young players and my gut feeling is that he will come back."
A tired-looking Nowitzki scored 16 points, hitting only four of his 17 shots from the field, as Los Angeles Clippers' Chris Kaman produced a valiant but futile solo effort for the Germans with 25 points and 11 rebounds as the Germans fell to a more balanced Lithuanian team.
