As mid-April approaches, it's been half a year since FC Bayern Basketball kicked off a new era with a thrilling home win against Real Madrid. Exactly 190 days after that memorable premiere in their new second home, the SAP Garden, the EuroLeague regular season is already coming to an end – with a showdown against Fenerbahce Istanbul (Thursday, 8 PM / MagentaSport).
Head coach Gordon Herbert’s team has celebrated 19 wins so far. In the fall, he set an ambitious goal for his new squad: making the playoffs. That’s still within reach, at the very least through the Play-Ins, as Bayern has secured a spot in the top ten. But with a win on this 34th and final game day, they might even break into the top six – and go straight to the quarterfinals.
"Our fans are the sixth man"
The “who-would-have-thought” phase is over – the Munich team now fully recognizes the huge opportunity in front of them. World champion Johannes Voigtmann puts it clearly: “This is a super important game – the most important of the season so far.”
And Coach Herbert is counting on the fans, who already won the battle of the stands against the traveling Serbian supporters in the recent game against Partizan Belgrade: “Our fans have been incredible this season, they've been our sixth man. We need to bring all our energy and enthusiasm as a team – then the crowd will be behind us again, and we’ll need that.”
Fenerbahce, meanwhile, is second in the standings and has already secured home-court advantage in the playoffs as a top-three team. The Turkish EuroLeague champion of 2017 (22 wins, 11 losses) even still has a shot at first place. A Bayern win would secure them seventh place – and guarantee at least one more home game.
Play-Ins or straight to the Playoffs?
Fenerbahce has arguably been the most consistent team in recent months. Their recent 75–83 home loss to FC Barcelona – after a clear halftime lead – was an exception. Barça, like FC Bayern, Anadolu Efes, and Real Madrid, currently holds a 19–14 record. Prior to that, the team coached by Saras Jasikevicius had won 12 of their last 15 games.
In the first-leg matchup back in November (76–87), FC Bayern struggled with the physicality of the favorites, who average 35.7 rebounds per game – the third-best mark in the EuroLeague.
Head Coach Gordie Herbert: “We need to come out from the start with everything we've got and embrace the battle. They rebound extremely well, but tomorrow we need to be better. It’ll be like a boxing match – we have to be physical right away.”
Fenerbahce, however, boasts plenty of offensive firepower. Wade Baldwin (11.0 PPG), who once led Bayern to their first-ever EuroLeague playoff appearance during the COVID season, now heads up a prominent guard combo alongside the offensively dangerous mid-season signing Errick McCollum (12.7), Devon Hall (7.1), and Marko Guduric (11.3).
Their frontcourt is equally stacked – with standout forward Nigel Hayes-Davis (16.6), Bonzie Colson (7.0), and wing Tarik Biberovic (9.8) all providing strong contributions.
Once again, Jo Voigtmann: “They’re a very physical, tall team – that’s their DNA. They’ve been playing at a high level recently and rightfully sit at the top. But we want to protect our strong home record and, ideally, qualify directly for the playoffs with a win. In the first leg, we were missing Lucic and Giffey, so we were playing very small. This time, we want to bring our strengths to the table – with all the physicality we’ve got.”