FC Bayern Munich defeated Niners Chemnitz 73:59 at home in the BMW Park to kick off the BBL season. Although the three-pointers did not fall in the debut of world champion coach Gordon Herbert, Bayern dominated the zone on the first match day.
New signing Oscar da Silva (19 points, 7/9 FG, 8 rebounds) and Devin Booker (16, 4/6) repeatedly scored easy points for Bayern in the German league opener, with the result that the big man duo accounted for the bulk of the points, while Vladimir Lucic (12) also scored in double digits. By contrast, Bayern was unable to score from outside, but that did not matter. Instead, it forced a lot of turnovers and mercilessly exploited Chemnitz’s weaknesses in moving the ball forward. Aher Uguk (11) and DeAndre Landsdowne (10) were the top scorers for Chemnitz.
The visitors started very slowly and took over four minutes to score a field goal at all. As expected, the visitors defended very aggressively, but had few solutions of their own in offense. However, it helped that four threes were made in the first ten minutes. Two of them were scored by Chemnitz in the last 19 seconds, with Will Christmas tying with the siren (16:16).
However, it was to remain the last field goal for some time; it was not until just under five minutes in that Uguk made one to stop Bayern’s run of 11 points without reply. The champions now carved out better positions under the basket and it was no surprise that Booker and da Silva were the first Bayern players to reach double digits. Yet Bayern only went in at half-time 36:28 in front because it only managed to drain one of its 15 attempts from beyond the arc.
It didn’t need to make more than that, though. Bayern put huge pressure on Chemnitz’s ball handlers and forced turnovers that led to easy points. An 11:0 run in just over 2:30 minutes already felt like a small preliminary decision. Again, da Silva and Booker split the points completely, with Booker letting rip with a neat slam-dunk.
The lead grew to over 20 points. The club from Saxony fought back again at the end of the period, but Bayern’s new playmaker Shabazz Napier (9, 2/4 3P, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) had the answer right away from downtown (62:46).
The point guard looked very confident in his play and was also Bayern’s only good shooter on the night. Bayern went on to control the game, with center Danko Brankovic adding a further two highlights with two blocks and a slam-dunk. Bayern’s superiority below the basket was just too much for Chemnitz to handle on the night.
Bayern now face a tough task, as they travel to face MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg on Sunday. Chemnitz are also in action on Sunday, when they welcome ratiopharm Ulm to the Messe Chemnitz.