Bayern Basketball will finish the regular season of the EuroLeague eighth in the standings, this is already decided before the final game on Friday at Real Madrid: The team of head coach Andrea Trinchieri again qualifying for the knockout round of the top division, lost on Wednesday night after a playoff-ready performance in front of 14,200 spectators at defending champion Efes Istanbul - as with Fenerbahce Istanbul - narrowly 81-76 (39:44).
As the eighth-place team headed to the playoffs, Bayern will thus go into the quarterfinals after Easter (April 19/20) against the first seed, title favorites FC Barcelona, which will be played as a best-of-five. Game three at the Audi Dome will take place on April 26 or 27 - tickets are already available.
Bei den Münchnern – die nur das erste Viertel verloren (21:28) – fehlten weiter Corey Walden und Nick Weiler-Babb. Efes um Superstar Shane Larkin (20 Punkte) zeigte zu Beginn aufgedreht seine Klasse und traf perfekt (8:16/5.). Aber die Bayern ließen sich noch nicht abschütteln, warfen gut Dreier (19:20/7.). Im zweiten Viertel schien der Kontakt beim 23:35 abzureißen, doch der Champion sah sich sehr mutigen Gästen gegenüber (59:59/28.).
Mittwoch kommt Jan Delay
Wie schon bei Fenerbahce (76:81) fehlten dem kampfstarken FCBB um Augustine Rubit (15 Punkte) zu Beginn des letzten Viertels nur etwas Wurfglück und besonders Rebounds - das 67:77 (37.) war letztlich nicht mehr ganz aufzuholen.
Am Donnerstagmittag reisen die Bayern in die spanische Hauptstadt zum letzten Hauptrundenspiel bei Real, das bei einem Sieg am Freitag (20.45 Uhr/MagentaSport) sicher Platz zwei hinter Barça belegt. Samstag ist nächster Reisetag, zum BBL-Duell in Gießen (Sonntag, 15 Uhr), das fünfte Auswärtsspiele in acht Tagen.
Nächster Heimauftritt der Münchner ist am Mittwoch (13. April, 19 Uhr) beim „Music meets Basketball“-Event gegen den MBC mit dem Konzert-Highlight „Jan Delay & die Delaydies & DJ Mad“.
Points per quarter Bayern - Efes: 21-28, 18-16, 23-23, 14-14
Stats: Two-point shooting: 50 % (FCBB) // 61 % (Efes); Three-point shooting: 44 % // 32 %; Free-throw shooting: 67% // 77 %; Rebounds: 31 // 37; Assists: 15 // 15; Turnovers: 8 // 8.
Quotes:
Andrea Trinchieri: "First of all, I want to congratulate Efes and Coach Ataman for a great game. They played a playoff game. It was a very difficult game and after a bad first quarter we improved. We showed good effort but didn't finish the job with the rebounding. We were active on defense, but the extra effort for rebounding was missing; that cost us the game in the last quarter. (...) We had a slow start, gave them 28 points in the first quarter and then we didn't get rebounds. In between there were still big plays by Larkin, Dunston rebounding, Anderson the X-factor. But basketball is a game of mistakes and we try to make as few as possible. Sometimes, though, we can't help it. But nobody talks about the fact that we're playing a triple week, with six games in nine days and we're missing our backcourt. Nobody before has had a triple week like that in the EuroLeague. That's why I'm proud of my players, who fought hard with Fenerbahce and now with Efes. It wasn't enough, but Efes is still a team that can win the EuroLeague. (...) My players gave everything on the court (in Istanbul) and I think that is a very good start to build something. (...) There is only one thing missing, because we were not even completely together the whole season. These games now are like a life lesson to know what we have to do in the next two months."
Zan Mark Sisko: "We played one of the best teams in Europe here, especially at the guard position. They have so much individual quality. I think overall we played well on offense, but on defense we had too many mistakes, too much miscommunication. We let Larkin create too much and ended up giving them a lot of rebounds. That cost us the game."
Efes head coach, Ergin Ataman: "We controlled the game for the most part. But the Bayern team still stayed in the game all the time. Congratulations to Andrea Trinchieri, he did an excellent job. They never gave up and always followed us. In the process, we often tried to draw the game on our side. It was crucial that we got a lot of offensive rebounds and made important points out of them. It's an important win for us so close to the playoffs."
Game recap:
Head coach Andrea Trinchieri brought size directly to the floor with Zan Mark Sisko, Jason George, Vladimir Lucic, Augustine Rubit and Leon Radosevic. The starting five faced a well-rounded Adrien Moerman, who sparked the offense along with Shane Larkin. But the guests also knew how to please their crowd with consistent drives to the basket. After six minutes, Othello Hunter finished a dream pass from Sisko to make it 20-16, but the man of the first quarter was clearly Larkin - the prominent Efes guard put up twelve points at a perfect shooting rate and secured the lead for his team in a brilliant first quarter (28-21).
In the second quarter the men from the Bosporus kept up their inimitable rhythm. Krunoslav Simon replaced Larkin seemingly effortlessly, setup center Tibor Pleis with a great pass and followed up with a three-pointer - time-out Trinchieri (35-23/13th). The eighth-placed team fought its way back into the game with the physicality of Rubit and strong two-point shooting (10 of 13 in the first half). With tremendous defensive effort, Bayern gradually managed to slow down the tempo in their favor. After a great fastbreak by Hilliard, only five points were left of the double-digit deficit at the break (44-39).
Bayern gets close but can't finish it off
In the second half, the guests stayed within striking distance. Nihad Djedovic proved his rising form with two threes in a row. But whenever it looked as if the Munich team could tie the game, the defending EuroLeague champions had an answer ready (57-52/26th). However, Trinchieri's team was not discouraged by a strong Moerman or by some offensive rebounds. Thanks to Hilliard's one-on-one qualities, the third quarter remained completely balanced (67-62).
In the final quarter, a game that had been so offensively dominated until then ran out of steam a little. In five minutes, both teams scored only five points (72-67). Then the Turks started a small 5-0 run. Despite good defense, Ergin Ataman's team created enough space to pull away again by double digits (79-67/38th). But even now the FCBB proved their fighting spirit and came back to within four points via Lucic and Hunter (79-75/ 40 seconds left). A hard-fought offensive rebound gave Rubit the opportunity to cut the deficit to two points with 15 seconds left. But the shot missed its target and sealed the close loss (81-76).
(c) FCBB, Stickel, Adanali