Mike Brown: 'It's going to be tough to beat anybody when you don't defend' / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

After his team lost its second straight game of the Olympics, Nigeria's head coach Mike Brown talked about his squad's lack of defensive effort.

Player of the Game EFF 21 Johannes Voigtmann Points 19 Accuracy 7-11 Rebounds 7 Assists 1

"Our main identity is we felt like we were a good defensive team coming into this tournament, and our guys had done a tremendous job on that side of the ball. But it's going to be tough to beat anybody when you don't defend. We did not do a good job defending, 47 percent from the three-point line, on top of that, you have 23 free throws... It's tough to overcome. We talked about defending the three-point line against these guys, talked about not sending them to the free-throw line, and we talked about taking care of the ball. And 18 turnovers weren't bad, but because a handful of those were offensive fouls, we have to be smarter in that area. But the way that we defended tonight, it is just not who we are."

Jordan Nwora, who scored 33 for Nigeria on 7 of 12 shooting from long range, praised Germany's play: "You got to give credit to Germany. We got to do a much better job on defense, if we kept them off the free-throw line, we would have put ourselves in a lot better position to win this game. They knocked down big shots and made free throws, and because of that, they were able to win the game."

For Germany, head coach Henrik Rodl talked about the importance of this game and being happy for his team: "It's a very hard game because of the time, obviously, at 10 in the morning, but also because of the weight of the importance of it. Everyone knew that whoever loses his games probably would be out. (Nigeria) were close for a long time, and I'm very proud of our guys how they came back from the 10-point deficit in the third quarter, exactly how we've been playing this whole summer campaign. Guys get better when the going gets tough."

Johannes Voitgmann, who had a team-high 19 points for Germany, emphasized his team's improvement on defense in the second half: "We did our job. The first half was maybe a little too high scoring for our taste, but after the first four minutes in the third quarter, we came together, and we stepped up defensively. We had a couple of guys taking care of Nwora with his great shooting, we made it tough for him, and that was big for us. Getting stops, getting easy baskets in transition, and easy stuff without their defense being set was basically the game for us. We're happy that we got the win."

Germany are 1-1 in the Olympics and have solid chances to advance to the quarter-finals, while Nigeria have their backs against the wall after losing both games. Both teams will compete again on Saturday, with Germany taking on Australia and Nigeria facing Italy.

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