This time the most accurate analysis was provided by a world champion; it covered both the current sporting situation and the culinary aspect. As usual, Andreas Obst threw in a few three-point throws for the Bayern basketball players, and then he delighted the television viewers with a brief look back at his time at the stadium. “It was a strange game,” said the Munich throwing specialist, describing the 85:84 (38:39) against Valencia at the end of the Euroleague first half of the season at Magentasport. “It may still be during Christmas, everyone has to digest the food a little.” And that’s why, logically somehow, everything felt quite “tough” on the parquet.
There are thrilling and high-class basketball games – and even life-shaping ones. Obst himself can look back on one at the end of the year: at the World Cup in September, he threw the Americans to the ground with his three-pointers. The game against Valencia, which brought Bayern their eighth win in the 17th duel of this Euroleague season, was not such a milestone. But it gave reason for a positive conclusion to the Munich people’s European trip so far. The FC Bayern team is put together with the ambition of reaching the playoffs in this competition between major clubs. They are now at least within reach of twelfth place in the table; they can rightly count themselves among the middle ranks of the Euroleague. So an interim success?
If it’s up to those involved, yes. “We have improved a lot in the last few weeks,” said Obst, who seems to be finding his World Cup talent again. Against Valencia, he was an outstanding Munich player alongside Argentinian builder Leandro Bolmaro (13 points), Devin Booker (13) and Vladimir Lucic (12). The team had to deal with a “difficult start” with many new, partly highly talented professionals. “We had a few games that we lost unnecessarily,” said Obst, but the “discovery process” had to continue. In fact, a lot has changed for the better at Bayern recently, after, for example, there was a defeat by almost 40 points in Barcelona in October. And then a few narrow defeats, where something always went terribly wrong at the end.
Coach Pablo Laso recently confirmed that there are learning effects and the recovery of long-injured protagonists like Lucic helps the team. In the strongest performance of the season against Efes Istanbul before Christmas, the Spaniard was beaming when he found out that he had his entire squad available for the first time ever. The Euroleague, with its hellish schedule, is also a competition for the distribution of forces; injuries set teams back a long way – which is also why the clubs are increasingly expanding their core troops. For Bayern, eleven out of twelve players managed to contribute points against Valencia, an indication of quality and depth. This time against the second-best defensive team in the competition, despite many missed throws at the beginning, they “stayed in the game, that helped us a lot,” observed Bolmaro, who cheered up the atmosphere in the once again sold-out hall with two dunkings.
Teams like Valencia, currently placed just ahead of Bayern, have to be beaten if they want to make it to the final knockout round in April via the newly introduced play-ins. In general, Bayern sometimes had an easier time against higher-rated clubs. Successes against the surprise team from Bologna, against the luxurious Milan team or against Istanbul indicated Munich’s potential – and FCB played more away games than home games due to their schedule. Even after the departure of center Freddie Gillespie (he recently moved to Red Star Belgrade), Munich’s rebounding strength can still be relied on, which always allows second chances after failed attempts. So far, it has been possible to properly conceal the fact that there is still a lack of spark for creativity on offense.
Of the available inspirations, Bolmaro appears to be the most stable, not least thanks to his octopus-like defense. And the Frenchman Sylvain Francisco dribbled knots into the legs of many an opponent in his first year in the Euroleague. It was only against Valencia that the little whirlwind was all too often told “rien ne va plus”, which is why coach Laso preferred to rely on world champion Isaac Bonga as the organizer at times and on Carsen Edwards as the shooter from the three-point line. “It was a great effort from my team today,” said Laso, praising another aspect of his Bayern team: their intact resilience.
“Both teams played at a high level considering the tough schedule for everyone,” said the Spanish coach, who after some ranting and raging at the boards about his players’ mistakes seemed at peace with himself again at the press conference. Bayern are taking Laso’s emotions and Andreas Obst’s dry humor with them into the new year – but first there is one last shake-off of the holiday rust: on Saturday in the Bundesliga duel against Heidelberg.