The German side has reeled off five straight wins in the EuroLeague
Coach Herbert's Bayern on the verge of becoming a very good team
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Don’t look now but FC Bayern Munich is tied for first place in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague after battling past previous league leaders Zalgiris Kaunas 77-74 in a game that provided some strong messages about the German side.
Bayern has already shown that it can win games in an up-tempo and fancy fashion, but this victory also shows that the team can win ugly games. And Bayern also showed it is taking a major step forward.
“It was a grind. Somewhat ugly. Good teams can win these types of games and we fought through it,” Bayern coach Gordie Herbert said after his team’s fifth straight win to improve to 6-2. “We’re on the verge of becoming a very good basketball team and we found a way.”
Bayern came into the game with the number one scoring offense at 88.3 points per game while Zalgiris was tops in defense, allowing just 71.4 points per game.
The showdown at the SAP Garden went mostly according to Zalgiris’s style.
“Did we get the tempo we wanted? No. We got too much into a half-court game. But give them credit,” Herbert said. “Zalgiris is a very good defensive team. They play scrappy.”
Bayern built a 16-point lead in the third quarter and the cushion was still 14 points in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. The hosts let Zalgiris back into the game with Sylvain Francisco hitting some big shots and the Lithuanian side grabbing a number of offensive rebounds.
"To a certain extent, we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. But I have to give a lot of credit to our players. They fought through it. This game was a grind.”
Carsen Edwards in the end made the difference - as in so many games this season so far. The league’s leading scorer tallied 6 of his game-high 24 points in the final 68 seconds to save the day and keep Bayern undefeated at 4-0 at home with previous wins over Real Madrid, Paris Basketball and Olympiacos Piraeus.
Bayern and Zalgiris games have turned into automatic thrillers. The 14 games between the two teams - Bayern has grabbed eight wins - have been decided by an average of 6.4 points. And that includes a 25-point blowout win for Zalgiris from 2019. Seven of the games have been decided by 4 points or fewer including three one-point nail-biters.
Bayern’s first two home wins exhibited the team’s stellar offense - a 97-89 win over Real and a 109-107 regulation-time victory over Paris. The last two victories meanwhile have seen Bayern’s defense come through - beating Olympiacos 84-80 and now downing Zalgiris while allowing only 74 points.
“We would like to get into a tempo game on the offensive end; attack off our defense; and play really good defense. Have we put it all together yet? No. But the good thing is, we’re heading in the right direction,” said Herbert.
The rest of the league might not want to hear messages like that.