76:67 against Asvel in front of another 11,200 fans

Three tricky games in five days, three valuable home victories: Bayern's basketball team completed a perfect double week in the EuroLeague after beating Berlin in the BBL and also defeated Lyon-Villeurbanne after Milan. After the hard-fought 76:67 (38:30) victory, the German champions are now 16:10 winners and still well in contention to qualify for the postseason.

Boxscore

Sold out for the 15th time in a row 

With the help of the 11,200 fans in the SAP Garden, which was also sold out for the 15th home game, Bayern overcame the enormous strain of the week and Booker's absence with a good defensive performance. Best scorers: Obst (15), Edwards (14) and Lucic (10/8 rebounds).

Bayern face BBL fourth-placed Vechta on Sunday. The defending champions' dress rehearsal for the cup final round the following weekend in Weißenfels is at BMW Park on Tuesday at 8 p.m. against Frankfurt.

Input from the bank

Booker was out again, but Napier made a somewhat surprising return after three weeks out injured (good thing, because Weiler-Babb played despite having a stomach bug). As in the recent defeat against Bologna, an unconventional duel developed with a team that has nothing left to lose. Lyon scored at the board and at pace, while Bayern still had to sort itself out (18:18/9).

The input again came from the bench: Brankovic, Obst anyway, Giffey and Harris stretched the gap to 36:20 in the 17th minute and the defense did a great job. However, laxity is punished at this level and the lead dwindled to ten at the break after the French side scored at the buzzer.

The visitors began the second half with more concentration again, now also scoring threes, fruit and Weiler-Babb - 54:36 (27'). Asvel tried everything in the final quarter (67:61/38) and FCBB ran out of steam, but Lucic's assist for Voigtmann to make it 71:61 was the dagger.

Quotes:

Gordon Herbert: "Three wins against three EuroLeague teams in five days, that's great. Huge credit to our players, they were resilient today; we had some with injuries and sick, but the guys battled through. They have shown exceptional resilience. I also want to thank our fans, sold out again, three times in five days, it couldn't be better and we just have great support. It wasn't our best game, but a sign of a good team is when you don't play that well and still win. I liked the fight in defense, for the second game in a row the opponent only had 70 points or less, that's where our DNA is supposed to be. (...)

I'm really proud of the players, the staff and the organization. We had a tough game against Bologna, then we won four games in a row. I'm proud of how they reacted, how they kept their heads up. Now we have a break (...), but then we have two BBL games and the cup. (...) Our goal, the players' goal, is to get into the playoffs, into the top 6. Things are in our hands and it's important to take it one game at a time, to focus on what we can control. (...)

The fact that we won all six games after Lucic's return is a coincidence. (...) What was really positive this season is that we stayed together when Niels and Vladi were out. (...) Bitim not playing is nothing personal, I just can't make everyone happy. If you don't play, you should be disappointed. Everyone just has to understand that it's a team game; Ivan didn't play some games either. (...) But when you play with eleven or twelve, your best players lose their rhythm. I hope he gets a chance to play now at the weekend or next week.” 

Johannes Voigtmann: “It wasn't our best game offensively. We needed a bit to warm up. We missed a lot of open shots in the first half, just like Asvel. That kept us in the game, our defense wasn't really good. We were then able to make it clearer in the second half; it was a bit tight again at the end. They have a lot of quality and when they get into the game a bit, it becomes dangerous. We then managed to pull it off in a relaxed manner. (...) We also have good other people who can compensate for the loss of Devin. Danko had a very, very good week. (...) Lucic is an absolute team player. Of course it's super important for us to have a player like that back.”

Andreas Obst: "We played two decent halves, but Asvel were always there and never gave up. It's tough to play against them, which is why we had to stay focused right to the end. I try to hit my shots and I missed a few easy ones today. In the end, the boys helped me to hit a few more shots.”

Nick Weiler-Babb: "We didn't have a good first half, they had too many open shots that they just didn't hit. We came out for the second half and wanted to play better defense and move more on offense; that helped us. They're a strong team with a lot of great players. They've improved a lot from last year.”

The next games 

• Sunday, February 9, 3 p.m.: 17th easyCredit BBL gameday, Rasta Vechta - FCBB
• Tuesday, February 11, 8 p.m.: 18th easyCredit BBL gameday, FCBB - Skyliners Frankfurt (BMW Park)
• Saturday, February 15, 4 p.m.: Cup semi-final, Syntainics MBC - FCBB (in Weißenfels)