2020-21Regular SeasonRound 17
FC Bayern Munich 90
FC Barcelona 77
December 30, 2020 CET: 19:30
Local time: 19:30 AUDI DOME

Bayern bests Barcelona with shutdown defense

FC Bayern Munich came back from a 10-point deficit to fend off FC Barcelona 90-77 at home for its third straight win at the Audi Dome. Bayern allowed just 10 points in the third quarter in winning for the fourth time in the last six games to improve to 11-6. Wade Baldwin IV led the way with a career-high 29 points and 7 assists set a club record with a performance index rating of 41. Paul Zipser drained 4 three-pointers in scoring 16 points while Nick Weiler-Babb had 14 points and 4 steals and Jalen Reynolds celebrated his 28th birthday with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks for the German side. Barcelona lost its third straight game and the fifth in its last eight to fall to 11-6. Alex Abrines paced the visitors with 16 points, while Rolands Smits scored 14, Cory Higgins added 12, Adam Hanga and Artem Pustovyi netted 10 each and Nick Calathes chipped in 9 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists. Barcelona missed star forward Nikola Mirotic, who was a late scratch.

James Gist opened the game for the hosts with a jumper, but Barcelona jumped on Bayern with Abrines and Smits both hitting three-pointers and Pustovyi scoring two baskets in a 3-12 run to go up 5-12. Nihad Dedovic made a three-pointer for Bayern, but Smits and Abrines were both on target from deep again as the advantage grew to 16-26. The home side got some defensive stops in the final minute of the quarter and closed the frame with 6 straight points to get within 22-26. Pustovyi got Barcelona going to start the second quarter and Leandro Bolmaro’s free throws got the margin to 24-32. Bayern once again used its defense to create turnovers and Reynolds got two scores in an 8-0 run to even the game at 32-32. Calathes joined the three-point party to send Barcelona ahead 34-39. Baldwin added 7 more points to move his first-half tally to 18 points and the hosts went into the locker room down 43-45.

Zipser’s three-pointer started the second half and put Bayern back ahead. He added free throws and another triple for a 49-45 lead. Calathes twice fed Pustovyi for dunks only to see Weiler-Babb and Zipser sandwich triples around a Baldwin and-one to extend the gap to 60-49. Weiler-Babb added 4 more points as the margin grew to 64-50. Abrines gave some temporary relief with a three-pointer, but Bayern downed 6 free throws and led 70-55 after 30 minutes. Bayern scored the first 4 points of the final frame to increase the lead to 19 points, 74-55. The hosts were held scoreless for nearly 3 minutes, however, Barcelona could only manage two Hanga scores to get within 74-59 before Weiler-Babb and Zipser went back-to-back from deep for an 80-62 cushion. Abrines tried to get Barcelona close again, but Baldwin converted back-to-back three-point plays to make it 88-69 with less than 4 minutes to play. The game was decided as Barcelona did not get closer than 11 points down the stretch.

Personal and club records for Baldwin

Wade Baldwin IV set personal and club records in the outstanding night as he collected 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting and 5-of-5 free throws, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 1 block and 10 fouls for a PIR of 41. His previous best marks were 19 points against Khimki Moscow Region earlier this month and a 22 PIR against ALBA Berlin in October. Baldwin’s index rating set a Bayern club record, topping Dusko Savanovic’s 37 against PGE Turow Zgorzelec on December 11, 2014.

Shut down second half

Barcelona made 11 of 15 two-pointers in the first half, but Bayer did a better job in the final 20 minutes as the Spanish side converted 11 of 20 from close range the rest of the way

Telling numbers

Bayern made 23 of 23 free throws and outrebounded Barcelona 33-27, while hitting 9 of 17 three-pointers (52.9%).

Next games

Barcelona's first EuroLeague game in 2021 will be at home where it hosts Valencia Basket on Thursday, January 7. Bayern begins 2021 with a clash in Greece against Olympiacos Piraeus the next day.

Wade Baldwin - FC Bayern Munich - EB20
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: CHRISTODOULOU, CHRISTOS; RADOVIC, SRETEN; BALAK, AMIT
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
FC Bayern Munich22212720
FC Barcelona26191022
End of Quarter1234
FC Bayern Munich22437090
FC Barcelona26455577
FC Bayern Munich
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WEILER-BABB, NICK 20:20 14 1/2 2/5 6/6   3 3 2 4 1     2 5 21
2 BALDWIN IV, WADE 31:57 29 9/14 2/3 5/5   3 3 7 2 3 1   2 10 41
4 SEELEY, DENNIS 21:18 4 1/2   2/2       2 1 3     1 1 3
8 REYNOLDS, JALEN 23:08 12 5/7   2/2 1 7 8 1   2 2   4 2 17
12 FLACCADORI, DIEGO 1:48                         2   -2
14 DEDOVIC, NIHAD 26:50 7 2/3 1/2   1 1 2 2 1 1         9
16 ZIPSER, PAUL 22:53 16 1/3 4/7 2/2   2 2 2         3 2 14
21 GIST, JAMES 20:19 4 1/4   2/2 3 2 5 1   2     5 1 1
25 JOHNSON, JAJUAN 23:29 4 0/4   4/4 2 5 7 2   1     1 2 9
31 SISKO, ZAN MARK 2:26                 1           1
43 RADOSEVIC, LEON 4:14   0/2                     1   -3
44 GRANT, SASHA 1:18                 1           1
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 90 20/41 9/17 23/23 9 24 33 19 10 13 3 0 21 23 115
        48.8% 52.9% 100%
Head coach: TRINCHIERI, ANDREA
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
FC Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
8 HANGA, ADAM 17:35 10 4/5 0/1 2/5   3 3     2     2 3 7
9 BOLMARO, LEANDRO 7:02 2   0/1 2/4   1 1 1 2         2 5
10 SMITS, ROLANDS 30:24 14 3/4 2/4 2/2 1 2 3 1   1   1 4 2 11
14 PUSTOVYI, ARTEM 13:14 10 5/6                     4 1 6
17 BADJI, IBOU 0:22                              
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 13:44 2 1/2       1 1 1         3 1 1
21 ABRINES, ALEX 25:25 16 1/2 4/7 2/2 4 1 5   1     1 4 1 14
22 HIGGINS, CORY 31:49 12 4/8 0/4 4/4 1   1 2 2 3   1 2 6 9
23 MARTINEZ, SERGI 15:51   0/1 0/1     2 2 1         1 1 1
24 KURIC, KYLE 16:20 2 1/1 0/1         1 1 2       2 3
25 BADIO, BRANCOU 0:22                              
99 CALATHES, NICK 27:52 9 3/6 1/3     5 5 8 1 4     3 2 13
Team           1 5 6     1         5
Totals 200:00 77 22/35 7/22 12/17 7 20 27 15 7 13 0 3 23 21 75
        62.9% 31.8% 70.6%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS

Head Coaches

TRINCHIERI, ANDREA
FC Bayern Munich
"It’s a big win. We are 11-6; that is a great thing. We want to live game by game. We don’t want to go too far with our thoughts. But I believe it’s a great way to finish the year. A very difficult year for many different reasons. I wish everybody - players, referees, coaches, managers, fans - a healthy 2021. The only wish I have is to see fans back in the arena: 500, 5,000, 10,000. I just want to feel some vibes and some emotions. We know that we have to go and keep playing. It’s the right thing to do. And we are trying to do that the best way. But I believe if you ask anybody who is in basketball what they want most, it’s to have the fans back."
JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
FC Barcelona
"Congratulations to Andrea, congratulations to Bayern. They were the better team today. I thought we competed really well in the first half. We were playing according to the plan and then in the third quarter, we completely lost our heads. We made so many fouls. After bonus situations gave Bayern even more confidence, they were already a confident team coming in. I had two video meetings before the game, I had a meeting at halftime. I couldn’t convince my players that Wade Baldwin prefers his left hand. He went left-handed today what seemed like to me 200 times, which is his specialty. And we gave it to him. We tried to prepare. We were really worried about their physical superiority on the rebounds. We managed to somewhat not lose the rebounds by a big margin, but in the end, they were the more athletic team. It was really just the third quarter. We lost control of the game."

Players

BALDWIN IV, WADE
FC Bayern Munich
"We knew we would have a tough battle after coming off a super, super tough loss against Zalgiris, who is an incredible team. We knew this was a game we had to go and get. Barcelona is the best of the best and we had to bring our best of the best. Our defensive scheme: we did a good job switching everything, fighting the bigs, all the guards trying to stay in front of the guards. On offense, we wanted to run. We knew that they could get tired. We’re young, we’re hungry and we continued this trend. We’re in a good situation."
WEILER-BABB, NICK
FC Bayern Munich
"It was a great fight for us as a team. We kind of lost a couple of games - some tough games. And I think today really showed how we can stick together as a team and that we have a lot of talent. We had a lot of guys out there playing, so it’s a good thing for us to get back on track. The game-changer was us locking in on the defensive end, following our game plan and really focusing in. Defense is going to win us games against a talented team like Barcelona. We just locked in on the defensive end."
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