Bayern with home loss against Dubai

Best to put this behind us: The Bayern Basketball team lost 74:87 (37:42) to the playoff contenders from Dubai on Thursday evening, missing out on their 14th win of the season. In front of 8.700 tireless spectators, Svetislav Pesic’s team, after a solid start, lacked flow for too long and the physical intensity that would have been necessary against the high-caliber team from the Emirate. The surge in the final minutes came a little too late.

Next Tuesday, Munich will play in Kaunas, and on Thursday (8:30 p.m.) at the SAP Garden against Lyon-Villeurbanne from France.

Only one quarter on equal footing

Bayern won the first quarter 21:18, generating three steals and capitalizing on opportunities on the boards. Jessup shot boldly, Mike dunked off the bench, but the visitors then began to utilize their deep rotation early on. Without playing much of a game, they pulled slightly ahead before the break (31:39/18th minute), while Bayern’s offense left a lot on the court—scoring just 16 points in the second quarter.

Full Boxscore

The score dropped to 40:53 after the restart (24th minute). With the defense too loose and barely any ball movement up front, there was no momentum to be gained. Dubai spread the floor and held the Munich offense to 14 points in the third quarter (51:65).

Late surge

In the final quarter, the defense initially failed to make any stops (51-58, 31st minute), before things suddenly came to life: Jessup, Obst, Mike, and da Silva scored to make it 63:70 with six minutes remaining. But now Dubai repeatedly showcased its individual class and athleticism in one-on-one situations, especially inside. The FCBB scorers had a harder time; not only Obst (10), but da Silva also reached twelve.

Quotes:

FC Bayern Basketball, Head Coach, Svetislav Pesic: “There are many reasons for this loss. As with every game, we’ll analyze what we can do better. Dubai deserved the win because they played excellent basketball. I think we gave it our all, but it wasn’t enough to win the game against an excellent team like Dubai.”

Oscar da Silva: “Things didn’t go well for us. Dubai isn’t as dangerous from the perimeter and tends to penetrate into the zone, but they hit us hard with three-pointers and read our defense well. It’s tough without stops. (…) They broke us with their shots. Whenever we got going, they always had an answer ready. (…) Dubai is a top-tier team. We’ve been dealing with injuries. But I think we could have won today too if we’d been able to eliminate our mistakes. (…) The goal is to win every remaining game. We also want to be in a good position for the national playoffs.”