Despite an effort over 40 intense minutes, Bayern Basketball lost in their third tough away game since Tuesday 87-83 in front of a sell-out crowd of 3,000 fans at seventh-place Hamburg. This was the eighth loss on gameday 30, leaving head coach Andrea Trinchieri's team in third place in the BBL.
Three days after the EuroLeague upset in Barcelona (90-75), the Munich offense lacked energy in the tough crunch time of a good duel, which was again carried by Deshaun Thomas (28 points). Before the playoff continuation in the Audi Dome against Barça on Wednesday (20:30) and Friday (20:45), Othello Hunter as well as the injured Leon Radosevic (foot) and Corey Walden (back) remained on the bench.
Radosevic missing from the defense
As expected, Hamburg tried to be as aggressive as possible against the tired guests, and Bayern took some time to adjust. It took four minutes until the first basket (6-2). Hamburg scored at a high percentage and preferred to score at the board, while the FCBB only made one three-pointer (25%) on the eleventh attempt. Through offensive rebounds and great effort at the back, the team worked its way back to a close score at the break with a 25-17 second quarter.
An and-one from Augustine Rubit and an overall cool head enabled the first lead (58-57/27th) and a 67:66 score after the third quarter. However, in the last minutes the air noticeably ran out (78-75/37th) and Radosevic was missing on defense against center Kotsar (18 points). The aggressive Towers kept the tempo very high and Homesley took a 84-80 lead with 59 seconds on the clock and could not be countered by Bayern.
Playoff opponent Barcelona also had to fight hard on Sunday night as the Spanish champions held off third-place Tenerife by a narrow 69-65 (26-27) margin and remain in first place in the ACB.
Hamburg Towers - FC Bayern Basketball 87:83 (41:38)
FCBB:
Deshaun Thomas (28 Points/10 von 18/9 Rebounds), Augustine Rubit (15/8 Rebounds), Nihad Djedovic (9), Nick Weile-Babb (7/5 Assists), Ognjen Jaramaz (7), Vladimir Lucic (5/6 Rebounds), Zan Mark Sisko (5/4 Assists), Andreas Obst (3), Jason George (2), Gavin Schilling (2) und Paul Zipser.
Top scorer Hamburg:
Caleb Homesley (22 Points)
Referee
Robert Lottermoser, Zulfikar Oruzgani, Oliver Krause
Attendance
3,000 (ausverkauft)
Points per quarter Bayern - Hamburg: 13-24, 25-17, 29-25, 16-21
Stats: Two-point shooting: 61% (FCBB) // 51% (Hamburg); Three-point shooting: 25% // 45%; Free-throw shooting: 87% // 67%; Rebounds: 40 // 33; Assists: 20 // 23; turnovers: 11 // 7.
Quotes:
Andrea Trinchieri: "Hamburg played strong and hit all open shots in the last three minutes and we threw them all away. That is decisive in such a close game with a lot of energy. They deserved to win. (...) In some leagues you don't play in the middle of EuroLeague playoffs, but we gave our best here and just made mistakes. But we made mistakes also in Barcelona and the energy loss is hard. The only good thing today is that nobody got injured. Now we can focus on Wednesday."
Deshaun Thomas: "They were really ready to play, whereas we lost a lot of 50-50 balls. They played hard and of course they know we have a tough game plan, but that can't be an excuse. They were very aggressive, but in the second half we were able to take the lead. But they stayed on and played hard, you have to acknowledge that. Now we have to worry about the next game. The mental thing is important now, to stay focused and passionate. We also have to learn from this defeat for Barcelona."
Photos: Stickel & Contessi
