Croatia overcame a 30-point, 13-rebound effort by Dirk Nowitzki to beat Germany 76-70 on Saturday, securing a berth at the Beijing Olympics. Greece also secured a spot by beating Puerto Rico 88-63.
Germany and Puerto Rico were to play for the final Olympic spot yesterday.
Croatia, which qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 1996, held Nowitzki to only 10 field goal attempts. But Nowtizki’s aggressive offensive drives allowed him to get to the foul line, where he finished 19-of-21.
Croatia jumped to a 24-14 lead after the first quarter, but, with Nowitzki scoring 13 in the second and Chris Kaman putting up eight points in the third, the Germans clawed back to take a 49-47 lead at the end of the third period.
The Croats tightened their defense even further and allowed the Germans only one point over the next four minutes, eventually building a 63-53 lead 3:30 left in the game. The Germans closed within 69-67 on a Nowitzki layup with 38 seconds left but then fouled Croatia’s Davor Kus four-seconds later. Kus made the first shot and missed the second but the Croats grabbed the offensive rebound and held on for victory, Marko Tomas led Croatia with 21 points.
“We had a little blackout in the third quarter, but we played great defense early in the fourth quarter,” Croat guard Roko-Leni Ukic said.
“The referees allowed Croatia to play a very physical, not dirty, game and it took us more than 10 minutes to adjust to that and become more physical, too,” Germany coach Dirk Bauermann said.
Greece applied its trademark defensive pressure to race to a 15-4 start against Puerto Rico.
Dimitris Diamantidis led Greece with 15 points, while JJ Barea, Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks teammate, scored 16 for Puerto Rico.
7-3 center PJ Ramos got into early foul trouble and their most consistent scorer, Carlos Arroyo, tore a leg muscle in the second quarter. Greece, with many players contributing offensively, gradually pulled away, leading 48-35 at halftime and increasing the lead in the second half.
“If my players play the game they know, we will beat the Germans [yesterday] and make the Olympics,” Puerto Rico coach Manuel Cintron said.
“We knew Puerto Rico is very dangerous,” Greek coach Panagiotis Yannakis said.
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