Baskets Bonn – Ratiopharm Ulm

Germany - BBL Bundesliga Finals Game 2, June 11, 18:00 CET

What the pressure of expectation means: Baskets Bonn lost their first match in the German BBL Bundesliga in almost five months – in the first game of the final title series. The relieved team Ratiopharm Ulm won 79:73 on Friday away from the favorite.
The result is shocking in many ways. Baskets Bonn, considered by many to be one of the best offensive teams in Europe, managed to score only 32 points in the second and third quarters of the game. Ulm is in a great rise in form, and a fantastic series in the playoffs was hinted on May 7, in an 85:83 defeat on the court of Baskets Bonn in the last round of the Regular season. Even then, it was clear that this is an extremely serious team.
These are teams that are designed in a similar way and whose key options are dominant shooters in the playmaker position. The main star of Baskets Bonn and the Bundesliga this season, guard T. J. Shorts, scored 20 points with seven assists in the first game of the finals – but he shot a poor 6-1 from three-pointers and missed three important free throws. It was obvious that he was hampered by the good defense of the Ulm team, with the obvious burden of being the favorite in the fight for the first title in the club's history.
On the other hand, the experienced forward, the American Paul, played well for Ulm (18 points and 4 rebounds). More importantly, Brazilian guard Matheus excelled both in attack and defense. In addition to 19 points, he also had nine assists and seven rebounds. The impression is that he completely outplayed Shorts in the key phases of the match.
This does not mean that Baskets Bonn doesn't remain the favorite in the fight for the title, absolutely. On the contrary, just as Ulm was underestimated before the first game of the finals, it seems that the basketball public in Germany and the continent underestimates the quality of the extremely complete Baskets Bonn roster, ahead of the second game of the final series. The team that has lost only three games in all competitions since the end of November has an excellent chance to achieve a convincing triumph in the fierce rhythm of the transition game and tie the final series at 1:1.
Now Ulm will enter the match even more relaxed, and the guests are aware that even in case of defeat, they can leave Bonn satisfied - because they made a break and will play the next two matches on their home field. So far, Ulm has had one convincing defeat in the playoffs (91:77 against Alba in the match played on May 17), along with seven triumphs. The team is obviously a little tired, since in the previous three games (the first in the final against Baskets Bonn, the last two in the semi-final against Bayern) they celebrated in an exciting finish.
The quality and number of attacking options of Baskets Bonn, as many as seven players who can easily enter a good shooting series - is what Ulm does not have in this final. That is why a tie in the final series is the expected outcome, potentially without excitement at the end of the match. After breaking a series of 21 victories at home, it is unrealistic to expect two defeats in a row for the new FIBA Champions League champion. Especially because all the players are healthy and continuously in shape.
How shortened the rotation of Ulm players is, is evidenced by the fact that even six of them had four fouls at the end of the first game of the final... Those six scored 73.4 percent of the winning team's points.
Bonn leads 35:22 in the head-to-head score since the first duel in 1990, it's a proud club with a much longer tradition, and in the playoff series (each time in the quarter-finals) of the Bundesliga BBL they have a 2:1 advantage.