Bayern gets the comeback win against Madrid

What a comeback: FC Bayern Basketball was at one point trailing by 16 points on Tuesday evening against the star-studded Real Madrid squad – but after 40 thrilling EuroLeague minutes, 11,500 fans in the sold-out SAP Garden celebrated a 90:84 (44:57) triumph over the Spanish champions, marking their third win of the season. In the third quarter, a transformed team allowed Real only ten points and fought their way into the lead with great passion. The outstanding scorer for the German champions was Isiaha Mike with 29 points; Xavier Rathan-Mayes (14), Kamar Baldwin (10), and the excellent Oscar da Silva with a double-double (10 points/10 rebounds) also scored in double figures.

Thursday against Bologna – with Dinwiddie? 

In just 46 hours, Bayern (3 wins, 4 losses) have the chance to build on their success: Tip-off for the eighth matchday against Virtus Bologna is Thursday at 8:30 p.m. (SAP Garden). There will be a reunion with Carsen Edwards, who last season became the EuroLeague’s top scorer (20.4 points per game) in a Bayern jersey, as well as with Munich’s own FCBB homegrown talent Karim Jallow. Virtus (4 wins, 3 losses) lost 65:86 in Kaunas on Tuesday.

Voigtmann returns, Mike and da Silva shine against Real

Against Real, Voigtmann made his comeback after two months, while Giffey (infection) had to sit out again. The world champion watched from home on TV as his team got off to a furious start, with Obst’s three-pointer making it 13:2. Returning Voigtmann, who started and immediately hit his first three-pointer, created the much-needed space. Real, however, only needed a brief moment to regroup and quickly scored from outside – 18:19, timeout (6th minute).

But Bayern played bravely, moved the ball much better than recently (27:25/10th minute). Madrid’s physical advantages led to the first small deficit (27:34/12th minute) – FCBB responded, collected a few steals for an 8:0 run. Then came the setback: Kratzer’s second unsportsmanlike foul broke the rhythm, and center colleague Gabriel had to return to the court despite three fouls – Real ruthlessly exploited this, 37:49 (17th minute). The defense could no longer hold.

But what Bayern showed after the restart was impressive: They defended hard and ran their offense, Mike led his team back – and da Silva tipped in twice to take the lead, 65:63 (29th minute)! That took a lot of energy, but the crowd pushed Bayern beyond their limits: Mayes took initiative, da Silva rebounded outstandingly and increased the lead to 82:72.

Real tried everything, 82:77, 82:78, just under two minutes left, da Silva at the line, 84:78, Mike with a rebound on defense and then two free throws on offense – 86:78 (0:50), the decision. What a comeback, what a victory.

Quotes:

Gordon Herbert, Head Coach FC Bayern Basketball: "Respect to my team, we pulled ourselves together well at halftime, our defense was much better in the second half, and the guys showed a lot of resilience. (…) It was a victory of character. To be behind at halftime, to give up 57 points, but then the guys put on a great defensive performance. Jo gave us a boost, but Oscar also helped us a lot and played a big role. (…) We went through setbacks, and sometimes you have to do that to get where you want to go. We’re enjoying this today, recovering, and then we’ll get ready for Thursday. (…) This is a great win for team atmosphere and for our fans. (…) We were much better organized on both sides of the court. Last Friday against Olympiakos, we somehow didn’t want to play, we just played – but against such good teams you can’t afford that, you have to be organized. Today we spread the floor against Tavares to open up the paint. (…) As I said last time: Everyone talks about Spencer (Dinwiddie), but just as important is getting Jo (Voigtmann) back. We needed his leadership in the locker room and on the court. (…) With Oscar and Jo, we have more options to play with a mobile five. That opens up the paint for everyone else. Oscar made some big hustle plays today, like the offensive rebound two minutes before the end, that was huge. (…) With Jo, we also created space for Isiaha, he’s very quick and got to the rim. He had a very good game. (…) I just spoke to Spencer for the first time. He’s going to sleep now, he’s a bit tired. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we’ll go through a few things with him and then decide. The hope is that he’ll be ready (for Thursday)."

Johannes Voigtmann: "My knee felt as good as it can right now. I’m incredibly happy to be back and to play in front of such a crowd. (…) We had a clear plan, wanted to play with a lot of energy, get Tavares away from the basket. When the first shot goes in and the ball is distributed well, it’s really fun. Then we’re a team that can compete with the best. (…) We got back to our plan. We lost it for a while, were sloppy in some situations, but then we discussed what we wanted to do. Isiaha had a great offensive day, defensively we took things away from them again, that’s how we came back. (…) The energy of the fans depends on how much energy you put in yourself."

Oscar da Silva: "It was a good energy performance from us, I personally really enjoyed it. I tried to get the fans going, I’m not sure how well I did, but it was fun and it’s a very important win for us. Starting tomorrow, we’ll prepare for Bologna. (…) In the EuroLeague you have to win every home game you can. Bologna is a strong opponent with familiar faces, we’ll do everything we can to win that one too."

Isiaha Mike: "We’ve had problems lately, but we finally had a third quarter where we responded after being behind. It felt good to have that energy. I’m grateful that we still won this game (…) We gave up a lot of easy baskets before halftime, but then we got more physical, helped better, and took away their size advantage. Our transition game really helped us."

Xavier Rathan-Mayes: "We did a good job overcoming adversity. The start to the season wasn’t what we wanted, but we stuck together. This group is positive, we’re brothers. The energy is positive, we all want the same goal. Today against Madrid we were the underdog, but we just wanted to be a good team today, and I think we managed that. (…) I think the structure of the team is to have nine or ten guys at a very high level. The second unit is stepping up, helping the first unit, and that’s helped us a lot."