By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Impacting Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoff seedings implications, FC Bayern Munich rallied past Real Madrid, 97-88, Friday evening.
Outscoring the hosts, 36-13, in the fourth quarter, the German club managed to escape Madrid with an improbable victory, considering previously trailing by a margin of 20 points. The Whites looked on their way to locking the second seed but instead ended up fourth.
Finishing the Regular Season at 18-10 means taking on the fifth-placed team, defending EuroLeague champion Anadolu Efes or Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, with home-court advantage in a best-of-five series for a spot in the Final Four.
Fueling the late surge, DeShaun Thomas banked in 12 of his 16 points in the last ten minutes. “It was a great win today for us as a team and coaching staff,” he said, “It’s one of those games that we don’t give up. We fought. Guys stepped up big, everybody did.”
Serbian guard Ognjen Jaramaz and Zan Mark Sisko recorded season-highs of 19 and 13 points, respectively. “We played much better and tougher in the second half,” added Jaramaz, “We had better defense, closed down the main players as best we could and made some tough shots on offense.”
Against his former team, Othello Hunter chipped in 11 points to go along with a game-high six rebounds in the Round 34 matchup. Captain Nihad Djedovic was ruled out joining Corey Walden and Nick Weiler-Babb on the list of unavailable players before Leon Radosevic suffered a lower back injury late in the fourth quarter. The experienced center exited with eight points to his name.
Besides storming back from a 20-point deficit in WiZink Center to end up at 14-14, the team coached by Andrea Trinchieri was coming off a hectic schedule. Third EuroLeague game in the last five days and seventh in the last seven days across all competitions. Already locked in the eighth seed, Bayern will take on FC Barcelona with the top-seeded Catalonia giant carrying the home-court advantage.
“I could be surprised by the final result. When you go down by 20, it’s not easy to come back, especially on the road, especially here,” pointed out the winning head coach, “But all the credit goes to my players. They played an excellent second half. They played together.”
Barca is in the immediate future of the team located in the Spanish capital as well. Pablo Laso’s side is set to visit its archrival in ACB Regular Season Round 28 action looking to make a case for a top seed at the domestic level Sunday.
In this case, sinking 18 three-pointers was not enough to prevent the meltdown. Making 13/22 before the break, Madrid finished with 18/36, one triple shy of the team record in Europe’s premier club continental competition. Gabriel Deck, Fabien Causeur, Sergio Llull, and Guerschon Yabusele shared a team-high 12 points. Thomas Heurtel and Trey Thompkins were late scratches, per Laso “after a technical decision”.
“We just stopped,” said Laso, “We talked about being consistent for 40 minutes, and in the fourth quarter we just didn’t play. We didn’t show up defensively, we didn’t show up offensively, and we stopped.”
Photo Credit: EuroLeagueBasketball.net