The German basketball players started their first Olympic tournament in 13 years with an unnecessary defeat.
After a long lead and at times clear superiority, the team of national coach Henrik Rödl lost against Italy on Sunday with 82:92 (43:46).
A total of 24 points from the strong Berlin Alba professional Maodo Lo were not enough to make a first step towards the quarter-finals in Saitama north of Tokyo.
In preliminary group B, Germany will meet Nigeria on Wednesday (3.00 a.m. / CEST in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympics, on ARD and on Eurosport) and then on Saturday against Australia, fourth in the World Cup. One of these games has to be won at least to advance. The two best teams in the group will certainly move into the round of the last eight, and two of the three third-placed teams will make it to the first knockout round. In her last Olympic participation, the selection of the German Basketball Federation around superstar Dirk Nowitzki in Beijing in 2008 in the preliminary round failed.
The initial nervousness and the early 0: 5 deficit quickly disappeared.
With 25:14, the German team was ahead after just seven minutes, mainly thanks to an outstanding hit rate from a distance.
Seven of the first ten three-point attempts found their way into the basket, the strong Andreas Obst sank three in a row without fail.
Italy looked quite surprised by the German offensive strength and initially had no antidote ready.
Both teams had only bought tickets for the summer games at short notice by winning their respective qualifying tournaments.
While Italy has already won silver twice, the German basketball players are still completely without medals and now absolutely want to at least reach the quarter-finals.
2008 was not enough with Nowitzki, a win from five games was not enough.
In Japan, the DBB selection quickly made it clear that they now want more.
Moritz Wagner from the NBA club Orlando Magic and Maodo Lo from Alba Berlin shone with good actions in the second quarter before Italy turned up around NBA star Danilo Galinari.
When the score was 43:43, they equalized shortly before the break.
After the break, the Germans quickly led again with ten points (59:49) before the former Bundesliga professionals Nicolo Melli (Bamberg) and Simone Fontecchio (Berlin) brought Italy back into play.
In the hectic final phase of a hard-fought encounter with many mistakes on both sides, no one was able to break away decisively until the middle of the final quarter.
In the last more than four minutes, however, the German team did not succeed in the basket, so that the defeat was clear in the end.