PARIS – World Cup champions Germany reached the Olympic men's basketball semifinals for the first time Tuesday, coming from behind to beat Greece, 76-63, and dumping two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo out of the Games.
Trailing by as many as 12 in the first quarter, Germany had knotted the score at 36-36 at halftime and after a tense third quarter roared away in the fourth to book a meeting with either host nation France or Canada for a place in the final.
Germany, fueled by 18 points from Franz Wagner, withstood a 22-point performance from Antetokounmpo to remain unbeaten in four games.
Johannes Thiemann's dunk with 1:24 left in the third put Germany up 54-50. Thiemann finished with 10 points, six rebounds and a steal and Dennis Schroder had 13 points and assists coming off the bench.
Greece burst out of the gate and their fans were on their feet when Antetokounmpo threw down a dunk that pushed their lead to 16-4 with less than five minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Nick Calathes found Antetokounmpo for an alley-oop dunk less than a minute later and Calathes followed with a three-pointer that put Greece up by 12 with less than a minute left in the first.
But Germany slowly turned the tide, Franz Wagner and Moritz Wagner scored six first-half points apiece and Germany dominated on the boards as they clawed back to tie it up.
Schroder found Daniel Theis for an alley-oop that made it 36-36 seconds before halftime.
Schroder opened the third with a three-pointer that gave Germany their first lead of the game and after a back-and-forth battle Isaac Bonga's 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third sent the Germans into the final period with a 59-52 lead.