All summer, Germany was lurking.
The U.S. men's basketball team will always take up the majority of the oxygen in any Olympic year, and when people weren't talking about Team USA, they were talking about other would-be contenders with starrier NBA names: France and Victor Wembanyama, Canada and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Serbia and Nikola Jokic. When Germany's name did come up, it was usually on the periphery, a team that couldn't be disrespected but that shouldn't be put in the inner circle of gold-medal hopefuls.
Until Friday, that is. No one can ignore Germany now, not after Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner combined for 52 points in an 85-71 victory over France to secure Group B and cap off a perfect 3-0 record in group play.
Germany took a 14-12 lead at the 5:14 mark of the first quarter and did not trail again, stretching the margin to 21 at halftime and as many as 24 in the third quarter.
It was a performance that exposed all of France's weaknesses. Offensively, Germany put shooting at all five spots on the floor, pulling Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert away from the basket and creating driving lanes for Schroder and Wagner (18-of-32 combined from the field, including 12-of-20 on twos). On the other end, France's lack of a true lead guard got exposed, relying far too much on isolation while scoring just 28 points in the first half.
With a raucous Stade Pierre-Mauroy crowd behind them, Les Bleus tried to make a push in the fourth quarter, finally catching a rhythm on offense while cutting the lead down to 12 at one point. But a France defense that had been overwhelming all tournament suddenly couldn't get a stop; Germany shot 48% from the field and 46% from 3, coming up with big buckets whenever it things got a little wobbly.
Wembanyama put up 14 and 12 for France, but no other scorer put up more than 10, with the hodgepodge backcourt of Evan Fournier, Frank Ntilikina and Co. once again not providing nearly enough help.