The last 16 of EuroBasket 2022 is here and Germany hope to make home advantage count when they take on Montenegro
All games from now on are at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany
When?
18.00 CEST, 17.00 BST, 12.00 EST, 09.00 PST
How they got here
Montenegro (3-2) is a longer story than you’d think as they initially didn’t even qualify for EuroBasket 2022 but the exclusion of Russia saw them progress as the non-qualifier with the best record. They’ve made the most of it so far with wins over Belgium, Bulgaria, and Georgia enough to secure the three seed while they lost a close one to Turkey but were well beaten by Spain.
Germany (4-1) opened their campaign with three straight wins over France, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lithuania, before losing to Slovenia but bouncing back to beat Hungary and finish second in Group B.
Need to know
The Mercedes-Benz arena wasn’t kind to Germany in EuroBasket 2015 where they went 1-4 and exited at the group stage but every international campaign since has shown real promise from them. They have been tremendous to watch in this tournament with Franz Wagner looking like an NBA All Star throughout. He’s currently favoured to make the all-tournament team and if Germany win this game you can probably chalk him down on the list right away.
Montenegro have managed all this without their biggest star, Nikola Vucevic, but there is no doubting the fight in this team as they’re probably the most battle tested of all the teams to emerge from Group A.
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Miscellaneous extras
Germany reached the quarter-finals last time out and have high hopes of surpassing that here but their route to the medal round almost certainly goes through Greece so they’ll really need a big display in this one to get the momentum they need to put up the challenge to Giannis Antetokounmpo and friends.
Montenegro’s lone NBA man, Marko Simonvic of the Chicago Bulls, has been somewhat of an afterthought here with just 18 minutes per game and fairly mediocre stats throughout the competitions.
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What do the bookies say?
Germany are big home favourites at 7/50 while Montenegro are available at 13/2. The point spread favours Germany by -12.5.
What do we say?
Montenegro will look to make this a grind it out battle but I just don’t see them being able to maintain that through to halftime let alone for the full 40 minutes. Germany may stutter early but they should win comfortably.
The pick
Germany with the points.
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