COLOGNE, GERMANY ? Things are not looking good for the NBA players on the U.S. Olympic basketball team.

The Americans needed a final-shot three-pointer by Allen Iverson from just across midcourt Wednesday to pull out an 80-77 exhibition victory over Germany — a team that failed even to qualify for the Athens Games.

A day after losing 95-78 to unheralded Italy, the U.S. players celebrated their last-gasp triumph against Germany as though they had won an NBA championship. When Iverson’s second three-pointer in the final 11/2 minutes went through the net, two-time league MVP Tim Duncan raised a finger to the sky as if to say, “We’re No. 1!” Other team members piled atop Iverson on the court.

“That was great. It felt good because it was the first time in my life I hit a buzzer beater like that,” Iverson said. “That’s what basketball is all about.”

Duncan led the Americans with 19 points, followed by Carmelo Anthony with 16 and Iverson with 15. But the United States again struggled against a team thought to be no competition.

The Germans’ top player, Dallas Mavericks All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, appeared to have sent the game to overtime by making a three-pointer over two defenders to tie the score at 77 with 3.2 seconds left. Nowitzki scored a game-high 32 points.

But Iverson, a U.S. co-captain, came through with his own clutch shot, one day after calling the loss to Italy “a wake-up call.” That 17-point difference was the largest margin of defeat for an NBA-stocked U.S. team.

“We made a lot of improvements over the game last night, but we have a long ways to go,” U.S. coach Larry Brown said.

One of Iverson’s other four three-pointers came with 1:18 left, staking the Americans to a 75-72 lead.

6Sports video: Team USA beats Germany, 80-77