© Pahnke
Four top games between Friday and the following Thursday – the Bayern basketball team’s season squeezes through the first of several bottlenecks within a week.
At least head coach Gordie Herbert’s team has home-court advantage three times: On Friday, the still-undefeated EuroLeague third-place team Žalgiris Kaunas visits the SAP Garden (tip-off 8:30 p.m.). On Sunday (3 p.m.), old rival Bamberg comes to the BMW Park for the BBL derby.On Tuesday (8:30 p.m.), again in the Olympiapark, Olimpia Milano with Devin Booker will be in town. The second EuroLeague “double week” wraps up two days later in Istanbul, where FCBB (1–1 record) faces defending champion Fenerbahçe.
Žalgiris and Milan in the SAP Garden, Bamberg in the BMW Park.
It was precisely against this Fenerbahçe team that Lithuania’s top club Žalgiris completed a stunning start to the season last week: after an 89–84 (45–35) road win against co-favorite AS Monaco, they defeated the Turkish champions, another Final Four team, 84–81 in front of 15,000 fans at home.
On Friday, six German European champions will be on the court in the SAP Garden – because Kaunas comes with its new point guard Maodo Lô.
The former Munich player (2018–2020) moved from Paris to Lithuania and now runs the offense alongside one of his successors at FCBB, Sylvain Francisco (2023–2024).
In the first two games, the 32-year-old scored a total of 15 points, while the Frenchman is again the backcourt scorer next to Nigel Williams-Goss (17 ppg) with his averages of 13.5 points and 6.5 assists.
Transfer push with Williams-Goss and Wright
The American guard was signed from Olympiacos Piraeus after major efforts by the club — as was center Moses Wright (16 points, 5 rebounds, 92% on two-pointers).
From the traditionally strong domestic contingent, forward Azuolas Tubelis, who transferred from archrival Rytas Vilnius and was the 2024 MVP of the Lithuanian league (LKL), has been the most effective so far (8.5 ppg). After the summer departure of Andrea Trinchieri, the team is once again led by a Lithuanian head coach — former Žalgiris player and assistant coach Tomas Masiulis, who most recently worked with Fenerbahçe and Barcelona.
For Bayern, it remains uncertain whether center Wenyen Gabriel (shoulder bruise) will be fully fit again after his injury from the Belgrade matchup.
“He hasn’t trained with us yet,” said coach Gordie Herbert. He added: “Starting Friday, we’ll have four games in seven days, then comes the Cup game (against Braunschweig), and after that, another four games in seven days. That’s why I’m really pleased with how the team trains in the few sessions we can have — how professional they are and how mentally focused. But Kaunas is a high-level team, they’re playing very well right now. Their guards are on another level, and their domestic players are also very strong. It will be a big challenge for us — but if we play as a team again, we can accomplish something.”
Bayern guard Xavier Rathan-Mayes added: “Kaunas beat Monaco on the road and the reigning champion at home. We’re facing a tough task, but we’re really happy to play in the SAP Garden again in front of our fans. Hopefully, we can give them a great game and get another win.”