Wednesday, June 9th 2021
Basketball players clarify master question
Alba lets Bavaria suffer in the opening thriller
Alba Berlin and Bayern Munich face each other in the final series of the German basketball championship. And if the first game was a foretaste, then not only a draining, but also a tight series awaits. First of all, Alba takes the lead.
Defending champion Alba Berlin has taken the first step towards winning the German basketball championship again. In the opening duel of the best-of-five series of finals, the capital city club prevailed against cup winners FC Bayern Munich with 89:86 (45:40). The most successful throwers for coach Aito Garcia Reneses’ team were Marcus Eriksson with 23 points and Simone Fontecchio with 18 points. For the guests from Munich, who last won the title in 2019, James Gist with 19 and Dennis Seeley with 14 points were the most successful. In the duel of the permanent rivals, the second meeting in Berlin will take place on Thursday (8.30 p.m. / Sport1 and Magentasport).
Alba started confidently in front of 1450 spectators and quickly led 11: 5. However, the double winner from the previous year could have been even further ahead, but just like Bayern, the hosts initially afforded a lot of lack of concentration. At the end of a long and exhausting season, in which both teams had already played around 80 competitive games, this came as little surprise. Munich also had to do without the former NBA pro Paul Zipser and Leon Radosevic.
While Radosevic could already be back in game two, Zipser will no longer be used. As Bayern announced only half an hour before the match, “neurological problems” were the reason for the failure. The absence of the former Chicago Bulls player weighs heavily. In the cup final against Alba Zipser had a large share of the title win with 18 points. Without the winger, his team suffered a lot of ball losses early on in the duel with their permanent rivals.
Bayern had already turned the game
The teams have faced each other six times since 2013 in the playoffs – and Munich always won, three of them in the final. In 2020 Bayern were eliminated in the quarter-finals against Ludwigsburg. On the way to the current final, Bayern prevailed 3-1 against the giants, Berlin defeated Ulm 3-1. Long-term injuries Johannes Thiemann and Luke Sikma returned to the squad of the former series champion on time for the most important series of the year. Sikma helped that Alba led early and Bayern only came to an equalizer when the score was 38:38. At halftime, the home side gained a five-point lead thanks to good rebound work.
With successful three-point litters by Swede Marcus Eriksson, extremely high intensity and the presence of 2.21 meters tall Christ Koumadje, Alba impressed Bayern in the third quarter. The reward was a 68:59 lead before the final section, in which Munich initially continued to show nerves. The American Wade Baldwin had to leave the field prematurely after two technical fouls, but two minutes before the end he took the lead again for the first time since the beginning (82:80). In the end, national player Maodo Lo took over responsibility and led Alba to a well-deserved victory with important baskets.
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