Bayern loses big, 96-68

A chance to be a top-two team in the BBL has been lost for the time being: The Bayern Basketball team suffered a tough 96-68 loss in Ludwigsburg in the BBL's top duel of the night. In front of 4,000 spectators, a visibly tired FCBB suffered its fourth loss of the season in their fourth outing since last Sunday.

Next week, Bayern will play two more roads games, Friday at defending champions Efes in Istanbul and Sunday in Bamberg. The next home games will take place on January 27 against Bologna and the following Sunday (Jan. 29, 15:00) against BBL fifth-place Goettingen.

SCHEDULE

Only 37% shooting from the field

In Ludwigsburg, with the injured Lucic and Obst were absent, as well as veteran Hunter the tired team had massive problems with the guards (16 threes) of the Giants from the start (53-30/19th). Ten turnovers and the exhausted defense were consistently exploited by the Swabians before the break. Bayern held its own in the second half, but all efforts were in vain.

Quotes:

Andrea Trinchieri: "A week ago Gianluca Vialli died, a great footballer. He always said one thing:  he who wins, enjoys - who loses, explains. But I can't explain anything today and have no excuses either. A big congratulations to Ludwigsburg for a great game. For me, it's the worst I've ever coached in my six and a half years in Germany. We were embarrassing, that's the low point and it's very hard to swallow that. Because we didn't show up at all in that game; we could have played it like that 25 days in a row, we would have always lost by+20-3

,+15 to 25, 30 point differential. It's very hard to accept that, basically it's unacceptable. But it's silly to say it's unacceptable when it just happened.

It's a reality check. We talk about being tired and okay, it's our third week in a row of back-to-back-to-back-to-back games - but sorry, I don't give a shit. We're here to play basketball, to cherish a jersey and to play hard. But we have not done that. Of course, this is a turning point now. What happens now, we will see in the next few days. Because you can't move on without analyzing a game like this.

Games like this are turning points. You either decide to do what you should do and how you should do it.... That's the only option we have right now and we're going to do it. This is a terrible day for us because not one player has found a way to play. And it's all about energy and intensity. We got six team fouls in (the first) 18 minutes where we conceded 55 points in the first half, all together. That's the picture of a team that wasn't present. And I don't like that."

Niels Giffey: "We brought the loss on ourselves. Ludwigsburg came out with so much energy and did the things that were actually on our game plan. We let some people play their game and that didn't go well for us. A loss like that hurts, but we shouldn't let it frustrate us too much right now. I think a big reason for the loss was our defense, and we should focus on that. If you win a few balls and get a few offensive rebounds, you also get easy points, then the offense looks better right away. With 96 points conceded, we have to look more at the defense."

Game recap:

Cassius Winston, Nick Weiler-Babb, Niels Giffey, Augustine Rubit und Freddie Gillespie opened the 15th gameday of the BBL for coach Trinchieri. Ludwigsburg started the game hot and the FCBB needed almost three minutes to score the first points. Ludwigsburg extended the run to make it 11-2, which Giffey only slowed down with a three-pointer after a timeout by FCBB coach Trinchieri (11-5/4th). A three-point play by Rubit and a rare four-point play by Winston brought Munich closer (15-12/6th). Ludwigsburg's Prentiss Hubb was unstoppable, however, scoring eleven points in the opening quarter (21-12/8th). Munich had too little to offer against Ludwigsburg and conceded far too many points in the opening quarter - 30-15 after ten minutes.

Weiler-Babb scored a left-handed basket after ten seconds in the second quarter and set the team off on the right foot in thes second quarter (30-17/11th). The hosts had already reached the team foul limit after 82 seconds and Munich played more aggressively on defense and more focused at the other end of the floor as the deficit shrank (32-21/13th). It was in this phase that mistakes prevented the team from getting closer - time-out Munich during which Trinchieri clearly questioned the defensive performance (41-27/15th). The admonishing words did not pay off and the lead grew to 20 for the home team, Ludwigsburg (50-30/18th). Ludwigsburg clearly had the momentum and the FCBB conceded an astonishingly passive 16-3 run and found itself facing a hefty 55-32 deficit at halftime.

Without energy, without hope

Analogous to quarter two, Weiler-Babb scored but Ludwigsburg answered with six points in a row (61-34/24th). How could the game turnaround for the better? The hopelessness was increasing with every passing second and this naturally crept into the minds of the Munich players. But Coach Trinchieri never tired of appealing to his players and their attitude. Winston and Giffey turned this into points and the deficit melted a bit back to 20 points (67-45/28th). With the immense lead behind them, the Ludwigsburg team played confidently and hit their shots putting Bayern even further in the backseat, 77-55.

Winston and Rubit pushed the deficit to below 20 points but Polas Bartolo was there again with a three-pointer (80-59/32nd) to snatch away any good feelings. Trinchieri, at least, did not tire and continued to yell at his players from courtside. Bayern kept their heads up and did not give up completely. The Ludwigsburgers continued to hit nearly every shot and the FCBB eventually had to accept the inevitable. "Wipe your mouth and regenerate" is now the motto of the hour. The Munich team has now earned a few days to recover and prepare for Anadolu Efes next Friday.