It’s the ninth of ten in total: the penultimate double week with two games within 48 hours is coming up in the EuroLeague regular season – for FC Bayern Basketball this means, on Game Day 33, a strenuous trip to Lithuania to face Zalgiris Kaunas (Tue, 7 p.m.) followed by a home game on Thursday at the SAP Garden (8:30 p.m.) against Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne from France. Especially on Tuesday evening, the German champions are under pressure to present themselves better against Francisco, Lô & Co. than they did in the first meeting. Last season, Bayern still won both encounters.
Heavy home defeat
The 70:98 loss in October against Lithuania’s flagship club in front of a sold‑out crowd certainly marked the low point of a stuttering first half of the season, before Bayern showed a completely different face at the start of the year and collected eight of their 13 wins so far. Zalgiris, meanwhile, has maintained its level and, as sixth in the table (18–14), has good chances of direct playoff qualification. In front of its more than 14,000 fans, Kaunas has won its last five home games, including against title contender Olympiacos two weeks ago (99:94) and most recently against Real Madrid (87:85).
Sylvain Francisco at MVP level
“In the first game we got our teeth kicked in, Kaunas had it under control from the start. We had nothing ready to counter their individual class at the guard positions,” recalls co-captain Andi Obst. “Zalgiris is a well-coached team that hopes to play a role in the playoffs. For us it’s about playing physically and also bringing a reaction onto the court after the Dubai game.” Despite the fact that the EuroLeague postseason is now off the table for FCBB, the goals remain clear: “The season is slowly entering the decisive phase for us, and we should use every game to get a good feeling – and to keep growing and be ready for the big games in the BBL.”
Even more than last season, everything at Zalgiris runs through playmaker Sylvain Francisco, whom Bayern brought into Europe’s elite league in the summer of 2024 at age 26 from the smaller Greek first-division club Peristeri. The quick Frenchman is currently the EuroLeague’s sixth-best scorer, averaging 17.1 points (40.8% from three; 6.4 assists per game).
The guard group mentioned by Obst is rounded out by Nigel Williams-Goss (from Olympiacos; 12.1 points per game) – the marquee signing alongside center Moses Wright, one of the league’s top rebounders (6.0 rebounds, 13 points per game) – and of course German national team player Maodo Lô (7.7 points per game). The former Bayern guard is also playing at a very high level right now, averaging just under twelve points over his last five games.
Jokubaitis on the FCBB podcast
All of this, as always, is creating huge euphoria in basketball-mad Lithuania, as Bayern playmaker Rokas Jokubaitis – still unfortunately injured – reports about his homeland:
“Zalgiris is playing one of their best seasons ever, they have the chance to make the playoffs. The whole country is talking and debating about it now; in Lithuania we simply have basketball in our blood. It’s part of our lives, we live for it. For us, it’s like another religion.”
On OPEN COURT, the Bayern basketball podcast, Rokas Jokubaitis is the guest in the latest episode ahead of the Kaunas game. He talks about his personal situation as well as the importance and specifics of basketball in Lithuania – available from Tuesday morning on the FCBB website and everywhere else you get your podcasts.