A good night's sleep, breakfast, a walk along the beautiful banks of the Rhine in Bonn, some stretching and weight training, a team meeting and otherwise plenty of sleep - that was the regeneration program for the Bayern basketball team on Sunday. After the successful start to the semifinal series with the Telekom Baskets (80-68), the mood was relaxed in the squad around head coach Andrea Trinchieri, whose admonition from the previous evening was nevertheless understood by all: "It's 1-0,, no less, but also no more."
In the second duel for a place in the final this Monday evening (MagentaSport and Sport1 live), the Munich team will be expecting even more physical resistance from the runners-up in the regular season, who have been deprived of home advantage for the time being. And that despite 21 turnovers and a euphoric home crowd of 6,000 fans, whose influence earned Trinchieri the sincere compliment of a "really incredible atmosphere". Other details will have pleased the Italian more than the turnovers rate.
Lucic and Jaramaz turn up the heat
Here are some key elements of Munich's road win, which puts Bayern in a decent starting position ahead of their own first home game next Saturday night (4/6, 18:00).
The rebound duel: With 37.2 rebounds per game, the Bonners are the third best BBL team in this category - but the Munich team dominated the boards, especially after the break, and won this contest clearly 42-24. Nick Weiler-Babb (8), Vladimir Lucic (7) and Augustine Rubit (6) together caught almost as rebounds as the Baskets as a team.
Shooting: With a 38.5 percent scoring rate from the field, they held Bonn well below their season average (46.5 %), while their own rate was also a proud 53.9 percent. Top scorer and MVP Parker Jackson-Cartwright (14 points/21.1%) was defended effectively by Nihad Djedovic, Nick Weiler-Babb and Ognjen Jaramaz.
Clutch Serbians: Ognjen Jaramaz and Vladimir Lucic put the stamp on Munich's offense in the strong second half. Jaramaz scored 15 of his 18 points after halftime, Lucic 16 of 19. The co-captain remained without a miss from the line (8/8), his young compatriot was just as clutch (4/4).
Defense: With 87.9 points per game, the Baskets have the best offense in the BBL. But Bayern managed to allow only 33 points after the break. The agile big men like Radosevic, Rubit and birthday man Othello Hunter, 36, impressively blocked the approach paths while switching with the remaining Munich guards (Sisko, Walden and Hilliard were missing) and were also always present on weak side defense.