Brose Baskets Bamberg moved within one victory of defending their German Basketball Bundesliga title with a 90-74 win over Alba Berlin for a 2-1 lead in the BBL finals.
One more victory will give Bamberg their second straight league-German Cup double and their fourth BBL crown following 2005, 2007 and 2010.
Five players scored in double figures and another tallied nine points as Bamberg bounced back from a loss in Game 2 to shoot 58 percent from the field and hold Berlin to 43 percent.
Casey Jacobsen, Anton Gavel and Kyle Hines all hit for 15 points while Predrag Suput had 12 points and Tibor Pleiss chipped in 10 with Brian Roberts added nine points.
“I am very happy that we showed the right reaction after the game in Berlin (an 80-71 loss after leading by 16 points early on),” said Bamberg coach Chris Fleming.
“We have to deal with the victory in a better way than after the first game. In Berlin, it will be very difficult. We have to show more consistency over 40 minutes.”
The victory proved costly though as Roberts was forced out of the game with five minutes left with a left knee injury and Bamberg up 17 points in the fourth quarter.
Top playmaker John Goldsberry was not expected to play in Game 3 after missing Game 2 with a strained right ankle suffered at the end of the first game. But the point guard played the final 2:25 minutes of the game.
“John Goldsberry surprised us all this morning when he arrived at tactical practice and said that he can play,” said Fleming.
Just like in Game 2, Bamberg jumped out to an early lead – up 25-18 after one quarter. But unlike in Berlin, Fleming’s men kept their foot on the gas pedal and let 53-35 at halftime.
Bamberg never let Berlin get back in the match as they just had too many weapons offensively and played too tough on defense.
Even if Berlin can force a Game 5 on June 18, that will be a huge task of beating Bamberg in southern Germany.
Bamberg have not lost a German game this season at home – during the regular season, playoffs or German Cup. Their only loses at Stechert Arena were in the Euroleague against Unicaja (69-65) and Lottomatica Roma (68-67). And Bamberg beat both Olympiacos and Real Madrid at home in the regular season of the Euroleague.