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Telekom's chance for a rematch

Bonn team connected five championship wins, and today they'll try to get even with the Berliners for the tough defeat 20 days ago in Eurocup. The big news from Alba is bringing the Slovenian center Uros Slokar

Telekom got the right rhythm, and it's more than obvious. Bonn team got five consecutive wins in the championship. The only defeat was from Bayern in the first round. During the week, Telekom showed their fast basketball in the Eurocup against the strong Zaragoza. The fact that they conceded 104 points and managed to win nevertheless shows how great they were. The key point was the three pointer shot (14/28).

The whole backcourt played at a high level. Benas Veikalas scored 19 points, Ryan Brooks 17, and Jared Jordan 14 plus 8 assists. The most important thing for Telekom is to always impose their style of play, and to establish a fast transition with the point guard Jordan. They don't have the height or the physical strength in the paint, so they're always trying to play the unprepared defense.

Today, they're facing the 53rd classic of the German basketball, against Alba. They already faced the Berliners once this season. It was the first Eurocup round where Alba scored everything, and Telekom nothing at all. Berlin team scored 12/17 three pointers in that match, and 62% of the two pointers. Telekom were left 22 points behind by the half time, and it stayed the same until the end, more or less.

- It's never good to lose, especially not that convincingly - wing center Donatas Zavackas said. He could play his last game for the Bonn team today. 

Telekom will bring the wing center Tony Gaffney on Thursday, who was brilliant in Telekom Dome a few seasons ago. After not managing to find a position in the NBA, he decided to come back to his former club. It's questionable whether he'll get to play today. He probably won't because of the limit of the foreigners in one game. He only had a few practices with the team, and coach Mathias Fischer probably won't take chances.

- Winning against Zaragoza gave  us extra self-confidence. The goal against Alba today is to play more aggressively on the defense than we did in the last match against them. We can't give them much space - Fischer stated.

The shooting guard David Logan played the best in the aforementioned win against Telekom, scoring 20 points. Leon Radosevic also performed great on the center, but he won't be playing today due to a big injury. They had to find a substitution for him in Berlin because the lack of players on the high positions was obvious. They signed the Slovenian center Uros Slokar for six weeks a few days ago, because he didn't have a contract after the Eurobasket. Alba said they are satisfied with the physical shape of the 210 cm tall Slovenian who can play the four position as well, so he'll probably debut tonight.

The second Alba's center, Jonas Wohlfarth-Botterman, will also have an interesting game in Bonn, because he played the last few seasons for Telekom. He blended in the Berliners' mediocre Eurocup performance in the away game in Rome on Tuesday. Alba broke the series of five wins in all the competitions against Virtus. They were losing 19 points by the half-time, and only reduced the difference a bit in the rest of the game. There was no real defense intensity, nor the flow in the offense. It was obvious how much they depend on Logan who had 3/10 shots from game. The center line failed the most.

You could see how many problems Alba have when they don't have a good defense approach. It will have to be a lot better today against Telekom. They managed to get the Bonn team score low a few weeks ago, and they'll have to try to do the same thing today. They'll hardly repeat the perfect statistic in the offense, and it's questionable how well Slokar will fit in. Radosevic was an important link of the offense, especially in the pick game.

Telekom showed on Wednesday how good their offense can be. They played +200 points game against the tough Zaragoza. They conceded over 100, but still managed to win. Bonn team work better in a faster game, and that's old news. They scored 86 points in the away game in Oldenburg in the previous round. They have 180 points per game at home. Of course, Alba's defense is not on Hagen or Rasta's level, but the Berliners did break a little. Against Mitteldeutscher, and then against Virtus this week, they played a game where their defense was not the one from the beginning of the season. Telekom will be motivated by wanting to make up for the defeat against Alba in the Eurocup recently, where the home team couldn't score almost anything, and the game ended with +150 points. Telekom's shape is getting better, with five consecutive wins, and I expect that they'll pose a faster rhythm in front of their fans.