The Bayern keep rocking the Garden

Home, Sweet Home: The Bayern basketball team is back and has celebrated a fantastic win in their seventh home game at the sold-out SAP Garden.

In a high-caliber offensive showdown against Baskonia Vítoria, Gordie Herbert’s team triumphed 94:80 (44:44) in front of 11,500 fans. The proud EuroLeague record of the German champions now stands at 9-5.

The top scorers were world champion Andi Obst (18), Booker (18), and leading scorer Edwards, who delivered all of his 27 points in the second half. The team rewarded themselves by upping their defensive intensity and hitting an impressive 60% of their three-pointers (18/30).

Full boxscore

Monday against Vechta

It continues on Monday at BMW Park (8 p.m.) with the cup rematch against Vechta for another Top 4 spot.

Baskonia, led by Pablo Laso, visibly came onto court with the confidence from its recent victories in Kaunas and against Fener: The ball flowed, shots dropped and Bayern conceded a number of turnovers (23:31/13th).  Moneke in particular (17 out of 25 up to the break) made his mark - before it suddenly rained down threes from Booker, Babb and Obst to make it 41:36 (17').

Edwards checks in

Protecting the zone remained a problem in defense (56:61/28). However, Edwards finally checked into the game and how: with 17 points in twelve minutes to make it 74:64 (32')!

Howard then turned up the heat over there to make it 76:73 and leave everything wide open. However, two difficult threes by Obst decisively regained the momentum.

Quotes:

Gordon Herbert, Head coach FC Bayern Basketball: "This was our fourth game in a week, and I liked the way we responded, especially in the last 15 to 17 minutes. That’s when we found energy, and the guys reacted after some weak performances. It was a kind of must-win game - not because of the victory itself, but to get back to playing our basketball and improving. In the last 15 minutes, I really liked our defense, our effort, and our activity.

Carsen delivered an incredible performance in the second half. Our defense is still a work in progress. We had a video session in the morning to go over our defensive performance against Efes, and it was no fun. But the players responded - they have pride. Shabazz Napier spoke to the team about needing to defend better, and Nick Babb also said a few things. Both of them aren’t just great basketball players but have an incredibly high basketball IQ.

Shabazz is developing into a really good leader for us. He’s a high-quality person and player. The fact that he has embraced the role of coming off the bench is fantastic for our team. Not many players would accept that.

The guys responded today, and sometimes it means more when the criticism comes from a teammate rather than the coach. We were more aggressive and made better use of fouls. Our offense can be a bit of a rollercoaster at times, but defense has to be stable. Were we solid for 40 minutes? No.

We lost our way a bit after the break, and that was my mistake. I didn’t like the practices during that time, and you could see it in our games. We need to learn from this - myself included."

Carsen Edwards: "It’s not important how many points I score or when I score them. I’m just very happy that we won - that’s what matters. We stuck together as a team, and the guys created open shots for me. After those two tough losses, we managed to create good moments today and bounce back. I’m really happy about that."

Devin Booker: "Every double-week is tough, especially when you play away first and then come back home. The energy from the fans was very important today - it really pushed us. We played very well at the end. We allowed too many points overall, but in the second half, Carsen stepped up, and that’s exactly what we need. Next week against Maccabi, we’ll need the same energy and defensive mentality - we have to keep working on that."