Towards the end, Gordon Herbert thinks his team “ran out of fuel a bit” in the home game against the current Euroleague champions. Four minutes before the final siren everything was still open, the score was 67:66 for the hosts, but then the Bayern basketball players were shown off a bit. The SAP Garden has lost its aura for the time being in the last home game of the calendar year, which is said to be the X factor that was still missing for Bayern to play a successful role in international basketball. Perhaps the game was lost 69:80 because the claps from the more than 10,000 Bayern supporters couldn’t be heard as loudly as the around 1,000 roaring fans of Panathinaikos Athens.
But there are a few more obvious reasons. One thing is: If the builder Carsen Edwards (11 points) doesn’t have a good day, it will be difficult for Bayern. Herbert says that you simply can’t leave Edwards on the bench, “he’s had games like this before and exploded towards the end.” On Friday evening, Panathinaikos left no room for the initial spark they had hoped for: the Greek guests defended very consistently on the three-point line, and when Edwards dribbled his way to the basket, he was often blocked hard. From a player that Panathinaikos had just signed in response to the injury to their center Mathias Lessort: The ambitious defending champions brought in Wenyen Gabriel, one of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s best players. This “mismatch”, i.e. the difference in size between the 1.80 meter tall Edwards and the 2.06 meter tall Gabriel, also made it clear what opportunities the absolute top European teams have.
“It was a very physical game and they prepared well for us. “It wasn’t that easy to release our shooters,” said Johannes Voigtmann after the game. A few small scratches on his neck confirmed his statements. The world champion was on the field for over 36 minutes, especially because Devin Booker had foul problems early on and had to leave the field six minutes before the end because of his fifth foul. The fuel ran out because Bayern were now rotating significantly less.
The Munich team are now being taken very seriously by the top teams, Athens coach Ataman confirmed
But they had one of the worst phases when Herbert sent the second guard onto the court in the first quarter – “that’s when things went downhill,” the coach later said himself. In short: Bayern have fewer opportunities to maintain the high level at which they are playing more and more often. In addition, they are now being taken more seriously by their big opponents, which Athens coach Ergin Ataman confirmed.
Voigtmann thinks that the “offensive was the theme this time,” and with their proven accuracy the team would probably remain undefeated in the SAP Garden. Especially since things were going quite well defensively at times and the FCB center had one of his best evenings to date in a Bayern uniform – he had already collected eleven rebounds at halftime. “I don’t define myself by my statistics, that’s not my role here,” says the 32-year-old; his role is “to make others better, that is my goal and that is very important to me,” he emphasizes. Voigtmann still sees great potential in the team, “we still have to improve defensively and become a little more varied offensively.” But we are pretty much exactly where we had hoped in the summer, even though we have “set ourselves very, very high goals” internally for this season.
Bayern are in fifth place in a strikingly balanced league, with only three defeats difference from 15th place. “We don’t want to maintain a lead now, we know that we need a few wins away from home,” said Voigtmann. Relying on the SAP Garden’s home strength would hardly be enough to achieve the goal of participating in the playoffs.
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