Bonn - Ludwigsburg
Germany - BBL, Playoffs, Semifinal
The Basketball Expert
Bonn is having a historic season. They won the FIBA Champions League in Malaga with wins against host Unicaja and Hapoel Jerusalem in the Final Four. Bonn also dominated regular season of the Bundesliga, which they finished at 32-2 and have home court advantage throughout the playoffs. Since mid-January, they played 33 games in all competitions and have emerged victorious on 32 occasions. Even the only game they lost against Strasbourg was by one point difference (76:77). All this written shows how powerful Bonn is. Most of the credit for these results goes to head coach Tuomas Iisalo and best player T.J. Shorts. Both are on the radar of promising Paris, which has the ambition to be a member of the Euroleague in a couple of years, and they expect from Bonn leaders to take them on that adventure from next fall. Both defensively and offensively, this team was the best in the Bundesliga in the regular season.
Ludwigsburg is going through a transition period this season. Last summer, head coach John Patrick left the club after nine years. Many thought it would be difficult for Josh King to repeat the results of his predecessor, but ten months later, they find themselves in the Bundesliga semifinals. And they got to this stage of the competition in a dominant way, defeating Oldenburg by 3-0 in the quarterfinals. Prentiss Hubb and Will Cherry complement each other in an excellent way, while veteran Yorman Bartolo also shows an enviable level of basketball in these playoffs. Ludwigsburg will be happy with what they have done so far, but when they are here, there is no doubt that they will do everything they can to complicate things for Bonn.
One of Bonn's two defeats in the Bundesliga regular season was against Ludwigsburg. From everything written, it is easy to conclude that Bonn is the absolute favorite here. However, visitors showed a high level of basketball against Oldenburg. If they replicate that editions in this series as well, it can easily happen that they stay close until the very end. The difference in quality is certainly on Bonn's side, but we shouldn’t expect them to win matches in this series with a double-digit difference in continuity. It is much more realistic that these will be uncertain clashes that will be decided in the fourth quarter.
Pistol Pete
Two completely rested and recovered teams, Telekom Bonn and Ludwigsburg, will play in the first match of the BBL Bundesliga semifinals. What they demonstrated during the season - foreshadows a kind of festival of fluid, attacking basketball.
There are many reasons why Telekom Bonn is the favorite in the semi-final series. The first-placed team from the regular season is in a series of 22 victories in the German championship. The performances in the quarter-final series against Chemnitz were impressive, and in each of thee wins the favorite scored at least 89 points. The last time Telekom Bonn lost the match was on April 5, against French team Strasbourg 77:76 – and the defeat was painless, since in the quarter-final series of the FIBA Champions League, the German team then achieved two easy triumphs. This is a team that has had only two defeats in all competitions since the beginning of December (!) - and they fully deserved the trophy in the FIBA Champions League.
Ludwigsburg is a team that cultivates a similar style of attacking basketball, and they surprised with the quality of their games in the 3:0 series against Oldenburg, in the quarterfinals of the BBL Bundesliga. Impressive was the 90:80 away triumph in the match played on May 16, as well as the routine 86:72 triumph at home on May 21. Since then, the team had as many as eight days to prepare for the duel with Telekom Bonn and will certainly have well-trained attacking schemes for the match.
In the duel of similarly conceived teams, the focus will be on the duel of the playmakers. Telekom Bonn guard TJ Shorts was deservedly named league MVP, and Ludwigsburg's Prentis Hubb is a worthy rival. Interestingly, in both teams the reserve playmakers are playing better and better, Sebastian Herrera had 14.3 and Will Cherry 14.7 points per game in the quarterfinals.
An extremely important factor in the match could be Cubanese veteran Yorman Polas Bartolo. The defense specialist is 37 years old and scored 15 points per game for Ludwigsburg in the quarter-final series. For Telekom Bonn, a team that realistically has more quality attacking options in the rotation, it will be extremely important to stop Bartolo. Under the hoop, the battle will be led mainly by German players and there the quality of the teams is even - but, when it comes to the variety of attacking options, Ludwigsburg can hardly match, in the best-of-three playoff series.
Interestingly, both will be the first playoff duel between these teams in the history of the BBL Bundesliga. So far, they have played 46 regular season matches - and achieved 23 victories each. This is the season in which Telekom Bonn is a strong favorite - but for the start of the playoff series, a good attacking performance of the guests should be expected, with good percentages of shooting by both teams.