And now back to Europe: After confidently defending top spot in the BBL against Hamburg (96:77), Bayern Basketball are preparing for two difficult EuroLeague assignments within 48 hours, with the newly formed team still battling to acclimatize. The next highlight at the SAP Garden, again just 48 hours after Hamburg, is FC Barcelona’s visit on Tuesday evening (8 p.m.). On Thursday, Munich travel to Belgrade to face Crvena Zvezda.
Plenty new at Barcelona
Due to three home defeats, head coach Anton Gavel’s team (2:5) have initially lost touch with the upper half and could really use an upset. Barça, meanwhile, beat Efes Istanbul 89:82 last week thanks to a strong final quarter (26:15) and are sitting respectably at 4:3.
“At Barcelona, the guards run and dominate the game very well; especially with Punter and Robinson they have two individually very strong players who have already gotten hot multiple times,” analyzed coach Gavel. “We conceded 107 points here in the last game — we won’t win a single game like that. That’s why the focus in preparation was on defense. We expect a completely different performance from the team on both ends of the floor compared to last time. What comes of it, we’ll see.”
Gavel: “Expecting a completely different performance”
Barcelona’s personnel has changed even more, on and off the court, than Bayern’s. The new head coach is former Slovenia national team coach Aleksander Sekulić, who took over Dubai during last season (previously St. Petersburg) and led them to the ABA title. The Catalans’ summer shopping spree brought guard Umoja Gibson (11.0 ppg; pro debut in 2023 at Göttingen), his fellow Americans Justin Robinson (12.0; from Paris), Tyrese Martin (9.0; 122 NBA games), and center Josh Nebo (7.8, 6.0 rpg; from Milan) to the Palau Blaugrana; from Malaga came Polish 2.16 m big man Olek Balcerowski (7.0). From the small remaining core, Kevin Punter (15.6 ppg) delivers as the go-to guy, as do Spain internationals Dario Brizuela (8.2) and Joel Parra (8.1).
Justinian Jessup calls for energy
“Barcelona have played very well lately and have found themselves. But it’s also on us, because we need to come out with much more energy than last week to finally get the first win at the SAP Garden for our fans,” says Bayern guard Justinian Jessup, now in his second EuroLeague season (7.1 ppg). “We especially have a lot to make up for on defense, but we firmly believe that, as a team, we can do much better.”
In Spain’s ACB, Barcelona were already in action on Saturday and won comfortably, 99:81, against Zaragoza. After five matchdays, they already have two defeats on the books, with rivals Real out in front (5:0). Against Zaragoza, former Ulm guard Juan Núñez was the top scorer with 23 points.