Fans celebrate despite 84-81 loss to Monaco

A great atmosphere almost drove the team to an upset: Despite a strong performance, the Bayern basketball team lost 84-81 to fourth-place AS Monaco on Friday night in the Audi Dome, which was sold out for the twelfth time. Even without its best lineup, Andrea Trinchieri's team was on a par with the EuroLeague favorites and the team was sent off with much applause by the 6,500 fans.

On Sunday (18:00) the Munich team will host Ludwigsburg, on Tuesday they will play in Ulm and on Thursday in Madrid.

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Jaramaz and Winston had to again sit due to injury but their colleagues held on splendidly despite falling behind 9-2 and came back to take a 30-23 lead (14th). Foul whistles and top star Mike James, who had 18 of his 28 points by the break, turned the game around.

Lucic is back

In the second half, the spectacular duel continued and captain Lucic (20 points) drove Bayern forward to take a 60-57 lead. Monaco used their size to their advantage and won the rebounding duel also due to the foul problems of the FCBB big men. Monaco pulled away with a 10-0 run to make it 70-62 (35th), but Bayern fought bravely until the end and had a last shot for a possible overtime but Walden couldn't put it through the hoop (18).

Score per quarter: 22-23, 18-22, 20-12, 21-27

Stats: Two-point shooting: 59 % (FCBB) // 50 % (Monaco); Three-point shooting: 35 % // 37 %; Free-throw shooting: 86 % // 75 %; Rebounds: 29 // 33; Assists: 19 // 16; Turnovers: 11 // 9

Quotes:

Andrea Trinchieri: "We played a great game in which we increased our level of play in the second half. We could have evened it out and that's despite still missing a lot of players. I think we played the best possible game. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but fortunately that's not important today. What matters is how we played and fought, how we came back. We were also a bit unlucky in which hands the ball ended up in contested situations. We also missed three great shots in the last three minutes. It was really a very good game from us, though."

Isaac Bonga: "You have to build on games like this. The past games were pretty tough. Monaco is very deep and plays very well individually. We have to make sure we play well for 40 minutes. We did that today, unfortunately it wasn't enough in the end. Basketball is always a game of runs. The fans give you a good energy here. (...) Of course, we all know what kind of quality Mike James has as a player. So you have to try to stay disciplined, even if he hits difficult shots. It's not going to be easy for us now either. But we'll have to fight our way through it. We will regenerate and tomorrow we will continue."

Monaco coach, Sasa Obradovic: "I am very happy with the way we won the game. It's an important win in terms of the home advantage we are targeting for the playoffs. We knew it was going to be a tough game against Bayern. They have strong players and coaches and they had nothing to lose. It was a changed atmosphere for them and for us. But in the end, I'm very happy to have found a way in the fourth quarter with good defense."

Game recap:

Nick Weiler-Babb, Andi Obst, Isaac Bonga, Vladimir Lucic and Freddie Gillespie were in the starting five for Bayern. They were directly confronted with Mike James, who wanted to silence any emerging criticism from the past days. The star player was involved in the first seven points but the FCBB were not taken by surprise and answered on the other side of the floor (13-11/ 5th minute). Munich collected a whopping nine assists in the first quarter. Enough to withstand Monaco's star play and were down only one after ten minutes of play - 23-22.

Walden found Lucic on the fly with a bounce pass and Seeley helped Donta Hall to a beautiful dunk shortly after. Meanwhile Bayern held Monaco scoreless on the defensive end. It took them a full four minutes to get back on the scoreboard (30-25/14th). However, the guests could again rely on their guard combo as James and Loyd led their team back almost single-handedly. In this phase Gillespie was called for a foul without any apparent contact, which caused not only Trinchieri but also the entire Audi Dome to collectively lose their minds. James used the restlessness to his advantage and scored 18 points in the first half. Walden kept his nerve for Munich and limited the damage in the first half with baskets of his own - 45-40.

Bayern turns up the heat, Walden misses final three-pointer

At the beginning of the second half, the 2021 Eurocup champions tried to be more aggressive on defense. After only a few steps with the ball, Weiler-Babb and Walden were already received with a full-court press. But the guards reacted quickly and played around it. Both Trinchieri and Obradovic trudged along the sidelines unhappy with their teams in the second half as Bayern was down six - 52-46 (25th).  Lucic ended the lull with two threes, which also woke up the fans again. Suddenly, the home side was back. Weiler-Babb blocked James and Gillespie sent Bonga on his way to finishing a spectacular dunk.  A little later Cheatham joined the dunk show. After a 20-12 quarter, the home side regained the lead - 60-57.

After the announcement of the EuroLeague top five team, Trinchieri probably already suspected that Mike James wanted to prove himself on the floor. It was only after Bayern started to bully him at the three-point line that they got a grip on the one-man threat. But a team like Monaco has other options, in this case they were Elie Okobo and John Brown, who each completed a three-point play (68-62/34th). Walden again found the answer from outside but offensively only little else fell for Bayern. In seven minutes, only eight points were added. Then Gillespie had to go to the bench with his fifth plus technical foul. Monaco used these few rough minutes to pull away to a seven-point lead  - 77-70 (38th). Thanks to a three-point play by Bonga as well as two wild threes by Lucic, hope germinated again 28 seconds before the end (84-81). With incredible effort, Bayern won the ball again with 4.3 seconds left. Walden took the half-open shot for overtime but the shot didn't drop.