After the win against Braunschweig in the league at the beginning of the year, the Telekom Baskets Bonn will be fighting for a place in the playoffs in the Basketball Champions League on Wednesday.
It’s a Bonn season with two faces. From defeats by almost 30 points to 123 points scored and records set by Darius McGhee, it’s all there. So far this year, the Baskets have shown the better face in their 94:74 win in Braunschweig.
Pallacanestro Reggina is coming to Bonn
On Wednesday (8 p.m.) Bonn will be in the Champions League for the first time this year. The Italian club Pallacanestro Reggina is a guest. After the Baskets finished their group phase in second place, they now need two wins in the so-called play-ins to make it into the playoffs.
Bonn goes into the game with two wins behind them. Bonn also clearly won the last BBL game of last year (80:67) and regained sixth place in the table with the two wins. However, there is a lack of consistency for the places at the top given the course of the season so far.
McGhee and Bonn still lack consistency
Too often the Rhinelanders show the worse of the two faces. In mid-December, Bonn lost in three days in mid-December, first with a crushing margin of 19 points in Bamberg and then with minus 29 in the last Champions League group game in Athens. Just four days later, after one of the worst games of the season, Bonn showed one of the best performances of recent years with a 123:88 win in Chemnitz.
One in particular made his way into the history books: Darius McGhee equaled Hurl Beechum’s league record from 1998 with twelve three-pointers. A few games earlier, McGhee had set a new club record with 44 points.
The point guard, who has also attracted international attention with such performances, still has too many slacks in his game, just like the entire team. In the last three BBL games, McGhee only hit three of 17 threes.
The 2014 world champions: Kenneth Faried (from left), Derrick Rose and Klay Thompson
Reggiana comes with a world champion
But the big boys are particularly needed against Reggiana. Thomas Kennedy, Till Pape and Co. face a world champion and a huge talent. “With Kenneth Faried and their youngster Mouhamed Faye, they have very physical and extremely athletic big men in the squad who are also strong in rebounding,” Moors is quoted as saying on the Bonn club’s homepage.
The 35-year-old Faried has 496 NBA games under his belt for the Denver Nuggets, Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets, and became world champion with the USA in 2014. Another has a really big career ahead of him. The 19-year-old center Mouhamed Faye is the focus of numerous NBA teams.
Our sources:
- Homepage Telekom Baskets Bonn
- WDR sports editorial team
