Everything now speaks in favor of the Telekom Baskets. Nothing for the giants of Ludwigsburg. When the two teams face each other for the sixth time this season on Tuesday evening (8:30 p.m., Telekom Dome), the balance sheet is really clear at first glance: in the Bundesliga main round (91:86 and 87:60), in the BBL In the cup (80:79) and also in the Champions League on the international stage (80:75 and 85:81), the Bonn team has already brought their long-term rivals to their knees five times this season.
Four times there were close games with a basket difference of a maximum of five points, but on Sunday the Baskets made a statement with a 27-point difference by winning 87:60 in the last main round game. The signs couldn’t be clearer for the Bonn team, who were able to boost their self-confidence after the defeats against Würzburg and ALBA Berlin. The Swabians, on the other hand, had to cope with their fourth Bundesliga defeat in a row – and they also have to play away again at the Telekom Dome.
As clear as all the signs are in Bonn’s favor, this is exactly what makes the situation extremely dangerous for the Baskets. Because if the players now only see the all-or-nothing game in the first play-in round as a quick way to the quarter-finals, the seeds of defeat have already been planted. That’s why both coaches emphasized that the outcome of the game was completely open.
“On Tuesday it starts again from scratch. The best thing we achieved today is that we secured a home game and can fully believe in our chances,” said Bonn coach Roel Moors after the game on Sunday. His counterpart Josh King admitted: “If you only shoot 29 percent from the field, you’re not going to win many games. It wasn’t our best game. But we have the next chance on Tuesday.” The guests want to drink the right target water by then.
Telekom Baskets: Secure seventh place with victory
If the Baskets actually celebrate their sixth win of the season over Ludwigsburg on Tuesday, they will have secured seventh place and will face ALBA Berlin as second in the main round in the quarterfinals. But if they lose to Ludwigsburg, they have to prevail on Thursday (May 16th at 8 p.m.) in the second play-in round against the winner of the game between the ninth place (Oldenburg) and the tenth place (Hamburg). This encounter will also decide which team will face Bayern Munich as main round champions in the quarter-finals. The model for this construct is once again the NBA. After his team’s concentrated performance in the second half against Ludwigsburg, Moers can look forward to this week calmly and confidently. Like Ludwigsburg, the Baskets hit poorly from a distance, as both only sank 22 percent of their three-pointers (Bonn 4 out of 18, Ludwigsburg 6 out of 27). The Rhinelanders also have to make adjustments.
But the Baskets presented themselves extremely well-balanced overall. All twelve players used also scored points, and they also showed themselves to be very team-oriented with 25 assists – Ludwigsburg only had eleven assists. The Bonn team were also dominant in the battle for rebounds with 45:38 rebounds. Another reason for the superiority was that the Baskets only lost seven turnovers.
For the Swabians it remains to be seen whether their top scorer Jayvon Graves (15.2 points on average) will be ready for action on Tuesday. He suffered painful bruises in a fall in the game against Bonn and only managed three points in a good twelve minutes of playing time. Former Bonn player Yorman Polas Bartolo contributed six points, four rebounds and two assists in 20 minutes.
2024-05-13 17:09:08
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