Bayern defeats league leaders Kaunas 77:74

Number six! Bayern's basketball team also defeated league leaders Zalgiris Kaunas on the eighth matchday of the EuroLeague and drew level with the Lithuanians: The thrilling 77:74 (38:28) thriller after 40 minutes, this time characterized by a battle, was already the sixth victory for Gordon Herbert's team. The German champions thus remain undefeated in the SAP Garden, which was once again sold out with 11,200 fans.

Both teams had rather mediocre shooting percentages (42 to 35% FG), but the German champions were able to impose their game more often thanks to their dynamism and rebounding power. Top scorer Carsen Edwards scored 24 points.

Full boxscore

Rebounds and defense

Bayern have the weekend off before traveling to Turkey on Monday to face Fenerbahce Istanbul (Tue., 6:45 p.m.). After that: the EuroLeague derby against Alba Berlin (Thu., 8:45 p.m./SAPGarden) and the BBL top game against Bonn (Sun., 3 p.m./BMWPark).

Kaunas did not score for more than four minutes, but Bayern only led 4:0. When Obst, Napier and Edwards scored, the express seemed to be rolling (19:6). FCBB countered physically, while Zalgiris shot poorly in the full-court press of Munich's defense. More than 14 points would have been possible with more composure (36:22/19).

Edwards' circus shot

Controlling the rebounds also worked well after the restart. Kaunas had its “grind game”, but FCBB was also able to grind away, often rewarding itself with easy points (55:40/29).

Kaunas never backed down, as its opponents had already experienced in many narrow defeats - 63:57 (35'). There was no beauty prize to be won against the returning Trinchieri and Francisco (20) - or so they thought, before Edwards fired in a circus shot from the halfway line to make it 66:57 with just 1.4 seconds on the clock.

The rest was a battle of nerves that was hazardous to health: 70:68 (2:04), offensive rebounds by Kaunas, strong plays by Edwards, the wild Francisco (76:74/0:08) - and a last-ditch defense.

The voices:

Gordon Herbert, Head Coach FC Bayern Basketball: "That was a grind game, rather ugly, but we fought our way through. We're still on the verge of becoming a very good basketball team today. Nevertheless, we found a way today. The starting point of our defense was excellent, but the points off second chances hurt us, on defensive rebounding. Did we have the pace we wanted? No, we were too often in the half-court game. (...) Kaunas defends very well, they play rough. Francisco and their offensive rebounds made the difference when they came back. Like I said, our initial defense was good. We played not to lose at certain moments instead of playing to win. Still, kudos to my players, they fought through it. We've now had five games in nine days, it's been a grind, just like this game. (...) Without Vladimir and Niels, we're a bit small in the three position. So they hurt us at the offensive board. Our defense was solid, but we have to execute our half-court offense better.(...) The first games here were an offensive show, today it was more of a defensive battle. We don't have all the things together yet in this process. But the good thing is that it's going in the right direction.”

Carsen Edwards: “I'm happy that we won, that everyone stayed healthy. It's a long season, we're taking it one game at a time. We're figuring out what we can do better, but we just have to keep going. (...) We're thankful for the fans, but it's a long season. We have to get better.”

Devin Booker: "I'm glad we won. It was tough, especially at the end we let up a bit, Kaunas hit some big shots. We played great in the first half, but I'm just glad we won. (...) We lost our focus a bit, the communication wasn't always right. Once they hit a few shots, they had the momentum. We fought to the end. (...) We wanted to defend our home record. It was a tough game and we knew we had to give our all for 40 minutes - and we did that.”