What does a basketball pro start with a long weekend off? He plays basketball. Three players from the cup winners and champions Alba Berlin played in the international match between Germany and Israel on Monday. Maodo Lo and Tamir Blatt dominated the second victory of national coach Gordon Herbert’s selection within four days (84:80 after 71:67 in Tel Aviv on Friday).
Due to the tight schedule in the Euroleague and Bundesliga with up to four games in a week, the two build-up players from Berlin hardly get to train together. In Heidelberg, the two helped out their two national teams at the World Cup qualification. Lo, 29, was the more successful with 18 points and seven assists, while Blatt, five years his junior and son of coach David Blatt, who was successful in both Europe and America, had twelve points and six assists.
The two made the game extremely exciting in front of 2400 spectators. Blatt led his team to a 15-point lead in the third quarter, before Lo, along with club-mate Johannes Thiemann (ten points/nine rebounds) and Andreas Obst from other German Euroleague team Bayern Munich, who started the turnaround with his only two goals , began to outstrip the Israelis. A 16:31 in the third quarter was followed by a 30:15 in the fourth. Christian Sengfelder from Bamberg scored 14 points, Tomer Ginat topped Israel’s with 18 points and ten rebounds.
In addition to leading the table with 3:1 wins in Group D and now almost certain of reaching the intermediate round on the way to the 2023 World Cup in the Philippines, in Japan and Indonesia, the success is also a signal for the games played in Cologne and Berlin in September European Championship. Then Herbert expects other German players from the Euroleague and NBA; Unlike at the Olympic Games last year, setback Dennis Schröder from the Houston Rockets will also be there.
Rationally and in relation to the strained body, Lo had recently said that as an overstretched professional basketball player you would actually not want to play for the national team: “But the heart and the passion for the sport, the sporting ambition play a different role.”
