A furious spray from Boomers coach Brian Goorjian early in the first quarter set the tone as a sluggish Australia fell to a 85-82 defeat against Germany at the Basketball World Cup in Okinawa.

Patty Mills led Australia with 21 points, but just four of those came in the second half as Germany outlasted the Boomers, who struggled with slow starts to the first and final quarters.

"It's a real hard loss for us," Goorjian said in his post-match press conference.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game and I thought it came down to a couple of little things that were out of our control.

"Onward to the next one."

A big part of the Boomers problems was a poor start as they trailed Germany 8-0 early, leading Goorjian to call for a much-needed time out to fire up his lacklustre starting side.

"F***, we're playing for our lives," Goorjian yelled, seemingly chastising Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Josh Giddey.

"Fellas come on now, we've got to pick this up. [This is] Embarrassing. Let's go."

Goorjian explained in his post-match press conference that he felt the Boomers' "effort and controllable stuff was off".

"I just felt the first four or five minutes of the game we had two or three guys on the floor asleep," Goorjian said.

"I just needed that time out use my voice and that's really the only time when I go off. I think that's very rare."

Things improved from there on out for the Aussies, but not enough, with a poor final quarter in which they scored just 16 points to Germany's 23 seeing them fall to a first defeat of the tournament.

Australia now must defeat Japan in the final match of the first group stage to be one of the two teams to advance from the first phase of the competition.

Mills helped lift Australia from that slow start, scoring 13 in the first quarter to lead by a point at the first break when they had trailed by 11 points at one stage.

Germany came back in the second quarter to lead by five at the major break, Toronto Raptors point guard Dennis Schröder menacing the Boomers on every drive in a topsy-turvy match.

At the final change, the Boomers led by four, outscoring the Germans 22-13 through the third quarter.

However, a 10-0 run at the start of the final term gave Germany a six-point buffer, precipitating another time out to arrest the slide, this time Mills leading the conversation as the Boomers again recovered their composure.

The two teams went shot for shot to be tied at 81-81 with 60 seconds remaining, with Giddey nailing consecutive lay-ups to level the game.

After going scoreless in the first quarter, Giddey came to the fore in the final term to finish with 17 points, but left a free throw short to give Germany a one-point lead with a touch over 30 seconds remaining.

Schröder though, gave up possession under pressure with 23 seconds remaining to give Australia a chance to win the game with the final play.

But Mills lost the ball on a drive to the net, giving Germany a chance to ice the game.

There was controversy at the death with Giddey feeling he was fouled as he attempted a last-gasp half-court shot for three, but his and Australia's pleas fell on deaf ears.