The hall of the Bayern basketball team emptied quickly on Tuesday evening, there was nothing to celebrate, at least not from a Munich perspective after the frustrating 58:71 defeat against Alba Berlin in the second playoff final. But a few friends of the losers stayed put, right down on the edge of the field, and were happy that Bayern captain Nihad Djedovic patiently signed a few autographs on their T-shirts.
Djedovic, who had long since showered and slipped into a summer shirt, black linen pants and a pair of beige sneakers, didn’t seem particularly upset about the loss. Maybe also because his team had simply had no chance. “It’s hard to find words. Losing so clearly at home isn’t nice. That means we didn’t play well,” said Djedovic. And then he followed up with two decisive sentences: “We weren’t present, not there. Berlin took advantage of every mistake we made, ice-cold.”
If you are not there in a final series, and in this crucial home game of the best-of-five series in the Audi Dome, which is officially sold out with 6500 spectators – well, when then?
Vladimir Lucic is also likely to miss the third game in Berlin on Friday
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Munich have fallen into a performance gap at the wrong time, which had already opened up in the semi-final duel against Bonn and is now getting deeper and deeper against Berlin. The situation has become extremely difficult for Bayern: If they also lose the third game in the best-of-five series in the capital on Friday, Alba Berlin will be German champions again. As in 2020 and 2021. “They are ready for the party,” said Bayern coach Andrea Trinchieri. His players were not meant by this sentence.
Well served: Bayern President Herbert Hainer (middle) and Honorary President Uli Hoeneß (right) follow the defeat in the hall.
(Photo: Ulrich Gamel/kolbert-press/Imago)
There isn’t just one reason for this valley that the people of Munich pass through. On the one hand, this physical and mental exhaustion is noticeable, which cost the team the victory on Friday in Berlin in the fourth quarter. The long-term injured Americans Corey Walden and Darrun Hilliard are almost irreplaceable, and if, as on Tuesday, Vladimir Lucic is also out with an adductor problem, three cornerstones are missing in Trinchieri’s system.
The coach said Lucic would also be out on Friday, which would mean a catastrophe for FCB. It was also the 82nd game of the season for Munich, in which Paul Zipser, who had been out for many months after his brain operation, was used for the first time in the playoffs. But Zipser wasn’t good for a comeback story either – after a little more than three minutes of action, he sat back on the bench without attracting too much attention. Anyway, Trinchieri said: “Now is not the time for excuses and explanations about players who are missing.”
Alba didn’t play a lot fewer games either, the club also had the burden of the Euroleague, but the Berliners have been in impressive form for weeks. On Friday, with their 20th win in a row and a sweep, they can chase Bayern out of the arena at Ostbahnhof – it would be the next humiliation for Munich after their home defeat on Tuesday. “We’ve been distributing the playing time very widely throughout the season. All 14 players were involved in the game. That helps us a lot right now,” said Alba head coach Israel González in Munich on Tuesday, when the Bayern players had long since soaked their burning muscles in the ice bath chilled. The defensive rebounds were a big problem again, as well as the poor throw rate compared to Berlin. In Deshaun Thomas, a single Munich player scored double digits – at Alba it was a trio: Jaleen Smith, Maodo Lo and Luke Sikma.
Another difference in this so far surprisingly one-sided series of finals: while Munich, like Lucic recently, are losing their individual skills, Berlin doesn’t need any at all.
