Newly-acquired Oklahoma City Thunder guard Dennis Schroder is certainly making some noise prior to the 2018-19 NBA season. In the European qualifiers for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Schroder showed up big against a resilient Israeli squad. Israel was mostly in the driver’s seat of the game with the Germans chipping at the lead, eventually gaining the momentum and the upper hand at times during the second half.
The back and forth match up was capped by an exciting play during regulation to send it to overtime. An amazing game-tying play courtesy of a Schroder inbounds alley-oop pass to the basket for a cutting Maxi Kleber sent the game into overtime. Germany took over the game in overtime, winning 110-98.
Schroder and Kleber save the day for Germany with just 0,4 second left pic.twitter.com/ascLEtlMSG
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) September 16, 2018
Germany has an unblemished record during the qualifiers, which immediately gets them a ticket to the 2019 FIBA World Cup next summer.
Schroder had a monster performance to keep his team within striking distance with 30 points and 13 assists despite his atrocious 1-of-9 shooting from deep made worse by seven ugly turnovers.
With the NBA season closing in, this sample size from the former Atlanta Hawks point guard is just what the Thunder need. Although the Thunder star duo of Russell Westbrook and Paul George will be leading the charge to the playoffs, the team has made some major roster retooling to pose some questions on Thunder expectations.
If Schroder’s performance is an indicator of how he can contribute to the team, his acquisition will be one of the best under-the-radar moves this summer.
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