The Veolia Towers Hamburg may not be a top team in the Basketball Bundesliga, but on Sunday afternoon they enjoyed a Euroleague atmosphere: to mark the team’s tenth anniversary, they had moved to the larger arena next to the Volksparkstadion, and almost 12,000 people came to the game FC Bayern – against those Bayern who had recently had a very difficult time in international competition.
Things got really loud in the final minute: the outsider seemed to have already been beaten, but then the host drew level with two three-pointers and forced extra time. Bayern’s captain Vladimir Lucic had just been thrown out of the game with his fifth foul, and the Munich team’s body language left a lot to be desired. In extra time, Bayern initially fell behind. But with a mixture of luck and individual quality, they still kept the hall quiet: in the end it was 81:80 for Munich, with Serge Ibaka securing the victory with a block in the final seconds. “We missed a lot of open throws,” said Bayern’s top scorer Elias Harris (14 points) after the game on the streaming service Dyn, “it was a tough fight under the boards.”
In the Bundesliga it may sometimes be just enough, but in the Euroleague there is often a lot missing. Last Friday evening, shortly before midnight: Niels Giffey is visibly tired and exhausted, the disappointment over the ultimately clear 74:89 defeat against Maccabi Tel Aviv is doing the rest. Purely rhetorically, Bayern don’t want to put a stop to the international playing time at this point, but they are close to it. The chance of reaching the playins in the Euroleague “is only a mathematical one,” says Giffey, “we had it in our own hands in the last two games.” And now they had given up entry into the playins with two defeats.
In order to take a few additional flights in the spring, tenth place in the table would be necessary. But Bayern are in 15th place and would have to catch up with two teams and overtake three teams against whom they lost the direct comparison – and that in just three games remaining. In these, the Laso ensemble will face teams number two, three and four in the table, next up against Barcelona on Thursday evening, at least in their home stadium. “We still have a small chance,” says coach Pablo Laso. It is therefore wrong to draw a Euroleague conclusion now – but he actually did that after the defeat, albeit only in the present tense, not the perfect tense: “I have the feeling that we don’t give every situation the necessary importance. This is something that hurts us all year long.”
If Bayern don’t have the best line-up, it won’t be enough against the better Euroleague teams
On Friday evening against Tel Aviv, the lack of consistency resulted in a particularly extreme ups and downs: Bayern lost the second quarter clearly, won the third quarter clearly, even turned the game around at the beginning of the final period – and then fell into a 0:18- Run from Tel Aviv. Not a single point was scored for almost six minutes of play. When asked how this could be explained in such a crucial phase of the season, head coach Laso said: “I can’t explain it.”
But it’s also obvious: If Bayern don’t have the best line-up, then it won’t be enough against the better teams in the best European league. Two centers were missing under the basket in Devon Booker and Danko Brankovic, and the weak three-point rate against Tel Aviv (28 percent) might have looked better with Andreas Obst. In addition, Bayern sometimes lack the necessary cleverness. For example, when Tel Aviv surrounded the defense, robbed Bayern of the ball during the build-up to the game and took away the rhythm. “That’s just annoying. I think we can play better,” said Giffey.
Was this game perhaps a reflection of the Euroleague season: catching up and then depriving yourself of the fruits of your labor? “A little bit,” said coach Laso. By the way, Obst was also missing in Hamburg due to his thigh injury, as the litters “selected past” attest to; Even at the Towers, Bayern only managed 29 percent from distance. But in the league it is often enough for a 2.03 meter forward to take on more tasks under the basket. Harris drew a lot of fouls and made all eight of his free throws – there shouldn’t have been any less.
After the most recent Euroleague defeat, Giffey said: “The chance is still there. But as soon as it’s no longer there, the focus switch has to come,” i.e. a seamless change, a full focus on the league, because the German championship is ” very clear goal.” In Hamburg the focus wasn’t quite there yet and it almost went wrong.