After their success in Ulm, FC Bayern now has the chance in the decisive Game 5 of the BBL Finals to save their season with the championship. Ulm is playing against history.
According to statistics, everything speaks for FC Bayern in the decisive fifth game of the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) Finals.
Since the introduction of the play-offs with three rounds including a best-of-five final series (1989), there has been a fifth game ten times – and the home team has always won. On Thursday (from 8 p.m. in the LIVETICKER), ratiopharm Ulm will try to break this streak.
FC Bayern: World Champion Obst Invokes Momentum
“In Game 5 we have home advantage and right now we have momentum. It’s the last game of the season and everything is on the line,” said world champion Andreas Obst determinedly. Justus Hollatz added: “We are very excited, everyone is fired up.”
Bayern now have the chance in front of their home crowd to have a conciliatory end to the season. In the first season of world champion coach Herbert, the Munich team has so far missed their goals: In the EuroLeague they missed the Final Four, in the cup they were eliminated in the semi-finals. In the league, a happy ending is at least possible again.
Ulm Can Rely on One of Their Draft Picks
“Lots of sleep and little sun,” said Nelson Weidemann, should now help to quickly shake off the first home defeat since December and bring the second championship in the club’s history to Ulm. Once again, 18-year-old Frenchman Noa Essengue will be missing, who had already left for the NBA Draft in New York before Game 4 and was selected by the Chicago Bulls. In contrast, the second NBA draft participant Ben Saraf (soon Brooklyn Nets) still wants to celebrate the title with his club.
“Ben has decided that he will stay here, so I assume that he will be there on Thursday,” said Ulm coach Ty Harrelson about the 19-year-old Israeli, who, however, with six points, could not match his performance from Game 3 (20 points).
The last time there was a deciding game was seven years ago, when Bayern, as the top seed in the regular season, beat their long-time rival Alba Berlin (2nd). This year, the first and second in the final table will also meet.