The Bavarians tried everything again, shortened with a three, the fans drew new hope, but Maodo Lo didn’t care. The playmaker from Alba Berlin, who was still under contract in Munich two years ago, twice elegantly increased the tempo in a way only he knows how to do. First Lo served Luke Sikma, the next attack he completed himself with a layup. The game was decided.

With the 71:58 (18:16, 20:10, 19:17, 14:15) in front of 6500 spectators in Munich’s Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle, which was never seriously endangered, Alba now leads 2-0 in the final series. If the Berliners manage another win on Friday (7 p.m.), the third championship in a row would be perfect. “We played well, but that’s just a stage win,” said Alba’s center Oscar da Silva on “Magentasport”.

While Alba’s coach Israel Gonzalez relied on the same twelve players as on Friday and thus continued to do without three-man specialist Marcus Eriksson, his opposite number Andrea Trinchieri had to change. With Vladimir Lucic, not just any player was out, but the undisputed leader of the Munich team. The Serb suffers from muscular problems in the adductor area and it is questionable whether he can even return to the floor in this final series.

In the first quarter, the spectators saw a completely different picture than in the first game. At the start of the final, both teams had hit almost 50 percent of their long-range shots, but in Munich the three-pointer quota was significantly lower. In the early stages things were tight even without Lucic. Still, Trinchieri was far from satisfied and that had mainly to do with the rebounding. Alba had already had clear advantages there in game one and it was similar on Tuesday evening. Again and again, the Berliners created new opportunities under the basket.

However, after the tight, defensive first quarter, Alba stepped up a gear. Oscar da Silva used a ball win for easy points, shortly afterwards Luke Sikma followed up and the Berliners led by eight points for the first time. Trinchieri called a time-out and roared dissatisfaction in his players’ faces. “No turnovers!” demanded the Italian.

But Alba still had everything under control despite many misses from a distance and made a more mature impression. Without Lucic and Darrun Hilliard, who had been injured for a long time, and Corey Walden, Munich were far too predictable. Since national player Andreas Obst, who was top scorer on Friday, had a very weak day and missed many open throws, the hosts radiated a frightening harmlessness. At half time they were down to just 26 points. “We played a very bad first half offensively,” said Trinchieri.

After the break, Alba followed up with a strong sequence from Christ Koumadje with two blocks and a dunk and increased the lead to almost 20 points. Although the Munich team managed to stop the Berlin run shortly afterwards, the gap remained constant in the double-digit range.