Bayern against Alba is the final showdown of the German basketball greats. Berlin is also battling an ever worsening injury crisis. No leniency can be expected from Bayern
In the big showdown against the merciless FC Bayern, of all teams, the injury plight of Bundesliga finalists Alba Berlin is getting worse and worse. Hardly any players left in the line-up, the captain and world champion out and, to make matters worse, the stand-in playmaker out of action: In the final game for the German basketball championship, the Berliners are not only fighting against title-hungry Munich, but also their own bodies. Bayern won the first final game 79:67 – how much of a rebellion is possible for the capital city team before game two on Monday evening (8.30 p.m./Dyn) in Munich again?
It’s not about attitude, as Alba’s professional Tim Schneider made clear. “We fought like lions and will do the same again and hopefully go out with a different result,” he said on the TV station Dyn and promised: “I know for sure that we’ll be here again, give 110 percent and do everything we can to make it 1:1.”
Alba is threatened with the next personnel blow. The eleven-time German champions had already started the showdown against Bayern without any nominal guards because all their playmakers are injured. World champion and captain Johannes Thiemann also had to miss the game as his damaged patella tendon prevented him from playing. And shortly before the end, Malte Delow also twisted his ankle. “The ankle is a bit swollen,” reported sporting director Himar Ojeda.
Anxiety for Thiemann and Delow
It remains to be seen whether Delow and Thiemann will be fit again for the second final game of the best-of-five series in the German Basketball League (BBL) on Monday. “We’ll have to wait and see how things develop,” said Ojeda. “We’ll have to see from day to day,” commented coach Israel Gonzalez in a similarly cautious manner.
The consequences of the personnel problems became apparent on Saturday in the final period of a game that had been exciting up to that point. “We ran out of gas in the fourth quarter,” admitted Berlin’s Matt Thomas. The visitors – who conceded a title-unworthy 20 turnovers in the entire game – did not score a basket until the final minute and ended up with a measly five points – by which time Bayern had long since sealed the game thanks to its superb defending.
Laso’s message to his Bayern team
And Munich will show no leniency towards their beleaguered rivals in the remaining games of the series – after four disappointing years without a Bundesliga trophy, the longing for the championship is too great. Coach Pablo Laso wants to go one better and then travel to Berlin with a 2-0 win. “I’ve told my players: This is just the start,” emphasized the Spaniard.
He no longer has to motivate his key players. Former NBA champion Serge Ibaka demanded: “We have to keep working as hard as we did today. And we have to do even better.” Captain Vladimir Lucic, the game’s top scorer with 17 points, emphasized: “It’s only 1:0, Alba is a great team. We have to be ready for the next match.”
Who will be eaten in the “cat-and-mouse game”?
As the two friendly coaches Laso and Gonzalez disappeared into the VIP area of BMW Park late on Saturday evening to chat, they were asked what they needed to change or adapt before game two. Alba coach Gonzalez smiled in response and said: “Playoffs are like a game of cat and mouse.” Above all because of the precarious personnel situation, Alba must fear being eaten up by hungry Bayern in the new week
