At four o'clock in the morning the Bavarian basketball players were at home on Tuesday after two games in two days in the cup in Weissenfels. Sleep in, eat and then return to the Audi Dome in the evening was the schedule for the next day because on Wednesday Munich already had to hit the trails again: The team around head coach Andrea Trinchieri traveled to the Spanish capital, and on Thursday evening (29.10., 21:00./MagentaSport) they will vist Real Madrid on the sixth gameday in the EuroLeague.
The 35-time Spanish champion is currently the undefeated leader in the Spanish ACB (7-0) despite early problems in the EuroLeague. On Tuesday evening they won on the road in Sevilla without any problems, 84-65.
Undefeated leader in Spain is not yet in rhythm in the EuroLeague
The FCBB's EuroLeague clash, on the other hand, is taking place under a strange constellation, and the Munich team is not complaining. Bayern after four wins in a row (4-1), are leading the standigns of the European top flight for the first time ever the royalty in Real Madrid have got off to their worst start ever: Out of five games they've won only won, an 94-85 victory over Khimki Moscow. They suffered defeats in the three Spanish EuroLeague duels with Vítoria (76-63), Valencia (93-77) and most recently Barcelona (79-72), as well as in the top game in Milan (80-78).
But that doesn't mean much for the Spanish club: Exactly one year ago Real had a 2-3 record and then lost only three games the rest of the season. When the season ended early in March, they were in second place with a 22-6 record.
"Real Madrid is always Real Madrid, whatever the standings say or the last result," emphasized coach Trinchieri. "Because they have one of the best, deepest squads in the EuroLeague. It will be a game in which every possession of the ball counts. We will have to make very fast and good decisions against them, because they are very big."
Coach Pablo Laso is in his tenth year and is responsible for two of the ten EuroLeague trophies (2015 and 2018, plus 17 other titles). Today his teams consists of stars such as playmaker Facundo Campazzo (9 ppg), who could soon be moving on to the NBA, guard colleague Sergio Llull (10.8 ppg), the 7 foot center Walter Tavares (9.6 ppg) and the agelss Trey Thompkins, who is currently the top scorer for the team with 12.8 points per game. Fresh blood was also added in the summer with Alberto Abalde (9.0 ppg), who was released at great expense in Valencia. The juvenile powerhouse Usman Garuba (18 years/5 ppg), one of the biggest center talents in Europe, is now also part of the fixed rotation.
Duel for the rebounds with Real's Center Tavares
So far, however, this all-star team has had problems on offense as their attack has produced an average of only 75.2 points (FCBB: 80.6). The FCBB, on the other hand, are currently among the best defensive teams with only 74.8 points scored. In this respect, this is probably the key, as is controling Tavares.
In the Spanish ACB, Real has performed flawlessly so far, only Tenerife (6-0) is still also undefeated. On Tuesday evening at Betis Sevilla, the top scorers were Jaycee Carroll and Llull with 14 points each and Tavares (13), Campazzo (9) had nine assists.
FCBB-guard Wade Baldwin: "This will probably be the most difficult opponent for us so far. Because they play at home, they want to win at all costs - we will see the best Real Madrid this season, for sure. We have to be prepared for that by continuing to show how hard we can play as a team. We have to jump after every ball again and try to win the rebounding duel, which will be very difficult. But if we repeat the good things from the previous games, it can work."