Top European teams lose recently

Top European teams from various leagues suffered losses recently. In Germany’s BBL, the top two teams of the league, Brose Baskets Bamberg and FC Bayern Muenchen lost their respective matchups recently. Brose Basket was stunned by 11th ranked Phoenix Hagen, and Bayern Muenchen were edged out by the Walter Tigers Tuebingen. Phoenix Hagen were led by Mark Dorris’ 25 points while the Tigers were paced by Johannes Lischka’s 21.

Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv lost at home to Elitzur Netanya with Marco Killingsworth (203 cm, Indiana’06) scoring 19 points in the win. It’s the second loss in a row for Maccabi and the last time they lost two domestic games in a row was in the 2007-08 season.

In the Adriatic League, Serbia’s Partizan upset league-leading Igokea (Bosnia) in a 73-64 victory.

All of these interesting losses by top teams are both testaments to the level of competition in European basketball today. They also remind everyone that even top teams can have bad games on off days. Being on top not only gives teams the recognition that accompanies their success, it also puts a big target on their backs as all other teams want to beat the top dog. Along with the prestige comes the weight and pressure of needing to carry on the success. Sometimes, even the mightiest of teams fall when least expected.