Let’s not kid ourselves: Israel’s loss in the opening game of the World Cup qualifying campaign surprised no one. Despite and perhaps even because of the absences of its stars, the German national team under Alex Mumbrú looked sharp, lethal and hungry in Friday’s 89-69 win in Ulm.

In theory, the national team windows that fall in the middle of the season offer a chance to narrow the gap between rosters full of NBA and EuroLeague stars. It’s true there are injuries and it’s true that without Deni Avdija our team lacks a lot of sparkle, but his absence (and that of Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf) is minor compared to national teams like Slovenia, Greece, France, Serbia and of course Germany who are teams that are overflowing with freak athletes, snipers and every other kind of weapon.

Under normal circumstances, Germany which, let’s remember, currently holds both the World Champion and fresh European Champion titles has on its roster a range of NBA stars like Dennis Schröder, the brothers Franz and Moe Wagner and also Tristan, the younger (more talented) and shorter De Silva brother. Even Daniel Theis and Maodo Lo, proven EuroLeague players, stayed home for the late-November window and gave their spots up to more secondary players, the ones whose presence justifies my use of the word “in theory” earlier.

Given the situation, even with the absence of the big names, Israel still needed an almost perfect performance to start the campaign on the right foot: capitalizing on opportunities, staying focused on both ends, making smart adjustments, playing physically and above all showing fighting spirit ideally all at once. Over those 40 minutes, we got somewhere between none and one of those things; you can decide. The pleasant German fans who respectfully stood for “Hatikva” got all of them, even though they didn’t really need them. Why did that happen? We’ll get to that, I promise.

On the court, Head Coach Ariel Beit-Halachmi tried to use a starting five meant to project size. In practice, the Germans hunted Tamir Blatt and forced help on almost every possession, pulling our big men away from the paint. It was like a peacock spreading its feathers, even though they don’t help it survive, because Roman Sorkin and Idan Zalmanson were nowhere near the paint when Oscar Da Silva cut under the basket for easy layups whenever he pleased. Israel stayed in the game offensively, striking gold from deep with four 3-pointers along with solid minutes from the bench via Gur Lavi, Bar Timor and Roi Huber together with Khadeen Carrington.

The second quarter was the knockout of knockouts and within was seemed to be just seconds Israel was already down double digits. Beit-Halachmi’s squad surrendered to Germany’s fast, aggressive game, a style that punishes every mistake Israel couldn’t afford to make. Soft defense by Gur Lavi meant a David Kramer triple. Poor rebounding meant easy layups for Isaac Bonga and De Silva. Slow transition defense after a miss turned into an easy bucket as one thing led to another, the quarter ended 24–9 for Germany and the deficit was 19. The second half was more of the same: whenever Israel was confused and sloppy, the gap ballooned to 29; when Germany briefly eased off, it shrank to 14, but ultimately settled back at 20, a margin reflecting the difference in level but also, just as much, the difference in mindset.

This game was absolutely one-sided. Even the Dream Team itself wouldn’t beat a squad that scores 20 points in transition, 38 points in the paint and wins 24–5 in second-chance points, so Israel certainly wasn’t going to. Germany grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, which surely helped them get 21 more field-goal attempts. That’s how you win games. That’s how you open a campaign and it doesn’t matter who exactly is on the floor.

Of the twelve players who dismantled Israel yesterday, we’ll probably see four, maybe five, in the World Cup in Qatar. Most of their spots will be taken by the big names from the big leagues. The hunger, sharpness, desire and intensity shown by this German team highlight just how well Mumbrú manages the talent he has. These players know that this campaign, these windows, are essentially a training camp, a bonding period, or auditions, call it what you want, ahead of the real thing.

Germany has a core, it has a system and now it just needs to choose the supplementary pieces that fit the puzzle, a puzzle that has already proven itself against the world’s flashiest teams more than once. Only the best, only the most fitting from this current secondary squad will continue with Mumbrú into the major tournaments.

Take Oscar Da Silva, for example: he starred with 19 points (75% from the field), 5 rebounds and 4 assists in just 20 minutes, but in this year’s EuroBasket he averaged only 8 minutes per game. Justus Holatz was also a fringe rotation player in that tournament and all the others except Bonga, weren’t called up at all. Each of them wants a ticket to Qatar, wants to be part of this team and each knows what he needs to do: show the level of intensity expected from a player representing the world champions. We should be so lucky.