Will the Wagner brothers play together in the knockout stage?
A lot of German fans were excited to witness the tandem of Wagner brothers Moritz and Franz at the FIBA World Cup.
Franz's run in the tournament, however, was cut short after injuring his ankle in Germany's opening day win against Japan at the Okinawa Arena. The Orlando Magic swingman had been on the sidelines since.
But after Germany qualified for the quarterfinals and flew to Manila, Franz Wagner was seen doing individual practice last Monday, before the start of the quarterfinals.
"He's had no 5-on-5, no real contact yet," coach Gordie Herbert said during practice last Monday. "We're gonna have a look at it [on Tuesday], day-by-day how his ankle feels in the morning and go from that. It's a process."
"He wants to play," the coach added. "He's pretty frustrated. He really wants to play."
But as of Wednesday, things look promising for Wagner and the Germans, as the 6-foot-10 ace joined the team's warm-up an hour before the quarterfinals.
"Franz is back!" The German basketball federation said via X (formerly Twitter).
This is Germany's third quarterfinals in the FIBA World Cup, after winning in 2002 against Spain and losing in 2006 against USA. They have won all five of their games this year, with their last three having a margin of greater than 25 points. Deutschland will be taking on Latvia, just the third debutant squad in history to reach the final eight.
And this is a Latvian team that means business. Even without NBA big man Kristaps Porzingis, the squad managed to beat defending champion Spain.
"I felt Latvia played really well in the qualifications," Herbert said. "They played really good Euro basketball. They played very well together."
"As far as surprises, they beat France, they beat Spain. Lot of credit to them."
Germany will face Latvia this Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena at 4:45 p.m. The game will be aired live on One Sports and the Pilipinas Live app.
(Editor's note: This article has been updated as of 4:22 p.m. to reflect Germany basketball's social media update.)
(GM)