Bayern basketball players under pressure: “Have to play smarter”

The Munich basketball players stagger. The opening defeat against Ulm is “a slap on the chin”. Coach Trinchieri and international Giffey know what needs to change.

The FC Bayern basketball players rely on “more mental toughness” to equalize in the second game of the semi-final playoffs against ratiopharm Ulm. “Our emotional and mental part was frightening. Now we have to come together again and try to play harder and smarter, »said coach Andrea Trinchieri before the second home game on Tuesday (8.30 p.m. / MagentaSport).

In the first of five possible games, the Munich team surprisingly lost 69:87 against the quarter-final conqueror of champion Alba Berlin on Sunday. After a temporary 52:46 lead, the cup winner collapsed from the Isar in the final quarter. “They’ve been kicking our ass for the last 15 minutes, both offensively and defensively. We deserved that they spanked us,” Trinchieri complained.

Munich national player Niels Giffey appealed to his team-mates to be smarter about speed attacks by Ulm. “We have to change that for the second game. Then we have to try how to control the pace of the game. We need a higher pace,” said the 31-year-old, describing the defeat at the start as a “slap on the chin”. Born in Berlin, he is hoping for his first championship title with the Munich team.

Corey Walden will also be available to Bayern again on Tuesday, as the club announced. The guard took a break on Sunday due to a cold. The long-term patients Vladimir Lucic, Othello Hunter and Augustine Rubit, on the other hand, are still in the role of spectators.

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