Basketball Bundesliga: Brose Bamberg loses in Chemnitz

Two weeks of preparation were not enough: Brose Bamberg cannot win at Niners Chemnitz either and concedes the fourth defeat in a row. After a defensively bloodless performance, coach Oren Amiel's boys lost 94-106 away from home.

Bamberg's opponents Chemnitz were missing four key players: Nelson Weidemann, Ivan Karacic, Frantz Massenat and Isiaha Mike. Coach Rodrigo Pastore did not have a single point guard available, and the hosts had even submitted a futile request to the BBL to postpone the game. New head coach Oren Amiel had the Bamberg team play with different defensive types in the first quarter, man-to-man defense, zone defense or full-court press. Twice the Bambergers prevented Chemnitz from crossing the center line in the first eight seconds, but offensively the guests could hardly take advantage. Bamberg led 18:15 after seven minutes - Coach Amiel had changed his starting five completely - and a break came into the Bamberg game. Increasingly, the weaknesses in the defensive work of Bamberg were revealed. When the Chemnitz team was unable to complete quick attacks, they impressed with their fast and effective passing game, which allowed them to increasingly find the free three-point shooters despite the lack of a point guard. Malte Ziegenhagen scored twice "for three" at the end of the first quarter - 20:26 against Bamberg. Akil Mitchell (18 points) and Christian Sengfelder (20 points) reduced the interim eight-point deficit (24:32) to three points (29:32). But 13 ball losses before the halftime break invited the home side to easy points again and again, so that it went into the break with a 41:51.

Although Chemnitz was able to extend the lead to 14 points (48:62) in the first minutes after the change of sides, with a time-out Coach Amiel directed the focus of his boys again on the right things: the defense stood well for a few attacks, in front the Bambergers brought the ball more into the zone that center Akil Mitchell made five points in a row. Omar Prewitt added five of his 15 points, and within two minutes Bamberg had closed the gap to 61:62 thanks to a 13-0 run. But the momentum fizzled out, also because Patrick Heckmann, who had been so strong so far this season, made a mistake: he missed an easy basket, had his foot on the sideline once and committed an offensive foul. The result: 65:75 at the end of the quarter, Bamberg let their heads down. And when Chemnitz opened the final quarter with two goals (65:80), the game was over.

Oren Amiel (Head Coach Brose Bamberg): "Chemnitz showed a lot of heart. We, on the other hand, have to flip the switch very quickly. If we don't improve our defense dramatically, we won't win games in a league as strong as the BBL. We've already worked hard on that in the last two weeks, and yet we couldn't get it on the field today. I take responsibility for that and know that a lot of work lies ahead. At the end of the day, it's not magic. We scored 94 points, but just couldn't stop smart-playing Chemnitz."

Already on Thursday evening, Dec. 23, 2021, Brose Bamberg has another chance to get its first win with new coach Oren Amiel: at 8:30 p.m., the Bamberg team has to play away at HAKRO Merlins Crailsheim.