Eurobasket

Germany got off to a poor start in the second round of the European Basketball Championships on Wednesday, after being defeated 68-77 by Spain.

The Spaniards managed to contain German stars Dirk Nowitzki of NBA champions Dallas Mavericks and Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers, keeping them to 19 and 15 points, respectively.

Spain took a nine-point lead on Pau Gasol's basket with less than six minutes remaining in the third quarter. But Germany kept coming back and Nowitzki's consecutive baskets at the end of the third and the start of the fourth put Germany up by one.

But with Spain up by seven with less than two minutes left, Germany missed a couple of shots and Ricky Rubio had an important steal to help Spain cruise home.

"We could not get the important baskets and rebounds at the end, and we turned the ball over too much," Germany forward Johannes Herber said. Germany had twice as many turnovers as Spain at 16.

"That's too many at a European championship," Nowitzki said. "We are not far from the top teams but in the decisive phase they switched into a higher gear and we made a couple of mistakes. That makes the difference."

Germany coach Dirk Bauermann said his team did everything it could "to make life as difficult as possible" for the defending champion.

"But in the fourth we either missed the shot or turned the ball over," he said.

The Germans are now already on the brink of elimination from the tournament with a 0-3 showing - since head-to-head results from the first group stage carry over into the second phase of the tournament.

The win puts Spain on 2-1 in Group E, which also features France, Lithuania, Serbia and Turkey. Germany had lost to France and Serbia in round one, contributing to its 0-3 second round record.

Germany next play Turkey on Friday in a must-win encounter, before rounding off the second phase against Lithuania on Sunday.

Author: Darren Mara (AFP, AP)
Editor: Sarah Harman