Carsen Edwards seemed to think for a moment when he heard the booming bass. He pressed his hand and his face against the tinted window to see how big the party was behind it in the small space directly under the stands of the SAP Gardens. The scene represented his entire evening: He clearly missed the beginning of the party on the field, but when it was over, the FC Bayern development player could still have safely celebrated. He decided against it, the party time simply hasn’t come for FC Bayern’s basketball professionals in December.
But they had managed an important turnaround. The international break was not good for the team; two defeats in the Euroleague against Red Star Belgrade and Efes Istanbul as well as one in the national league against Vechta came as quite a surprise. But on Thursday evening, just in time for former Bayern coach Pablo Laso’s guest appearance with his new team Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, a brilliant final act in a hard-fought match resulted in a deserved 94:80 victory.
In the first half, the obligatory point supplier Edwards scored exactly zero points, only to score 27 in the second half. So 20 minutes of play were enough for him to be the best thrower of the evening. What happened to him in the first half? “I have to be in a better mental state,” was his short answer, after which he simply tried to “make up for it.” What he achieved impressively. Bayern remain undefeated in their SAP Garden after seven games and are in the top group of the Euroleague.
Nick Weiler-Babb and Shabazz Napier grabbed their colleagues for the honor in a speech
Coach Gordon Herbert made surprisingly open statements about the past few days late in the evening. “That’s my mistake too,” he admitted after his team’s lax ideas. He, a world champion coach, also still has to learn. At least he had an idea for a change. On Thursday morning he called a video session on defense, the team’s current weak point. “It wasn’t fun,” he says, but it was probably necessary. Nick Weiler-Babb and especially Shabazz Napier took the floor and obviously successfully grabbed the players’ honor. “The team responded really well,” said the 65-year-old, adding that it was an important step back from the good performances of the previous weeks.
By the way, guest coach Laso, who knows most of the Munich players, also found that there was a development in the Bayern team. He was actually intended to play the leading role in the SAP Garden before he hastily left Munich in the summer.
Herbert thinks the squad is well put together, and he also gave another interesting insight. “I haven’t said this publicly yet, but Shabazz has developed into a real leader,” Herbert said. It is incredibly important for the entire team “how he accepts coming off the bench.” Not many professionals of Napier’s quality would put up with that. The American point guard only played 16 minutes against Baskonia.
The exciting game ended in a draw (44:44) at the break, and it was only towards the end that Bayern were able to really exploit their strengths. In the first, virtually Edwards-less half (Herbert: “He wasn’t there”), Devin Booker in particular stepped into the breach against a Laso team that, in contrast to the hosts, had arrived with a positive run. The defensive work only came into its own in the second half of the game, when Munich held the Spaniards to 36 points.
But in order to fully rehabilitate themselves for the weak phase, Bayern should also win next Monday (8 p.m., BMW Park). Firstly, they could then make amends against Rasta Vechta – after the narrow defeat in the Bundesliga last Sunday. Secondly, they don’t want to be eliminated in the quarter-finals of the German cup competition.
It remains to be seen whether the defense will actually be more stable on a consistent basis; there are no parties until then. On Thursday there was another, much more serious reason for this. In a minute’s silence, Bayern remembered the deceased main sponsor and loyal fan Bernd Siegmund. Among other things, he gave his name to the most recent Cup Final Four in Munich last February. It would have been a pleasure for him if Bayern, as defending champions, reached the final tournament again.
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