Former Valencia standouts Lucic and Dimitrijevic combine for 31 points to push Bayern to an important win.
Dimitrijevic, Lucic lead Bayern’s bounce back win over Valencia
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 24 of 38
Regular Season
FC Bayern MunichBAY
9389
Valencia BasketVBC
Overview
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Two days after falling 63‑69 at home to Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade, FC Bayern Munich returned to SAP Arena with a completely different look, defeating Valencia Basket 93‑87 in a free‑flowing, high‑scoring matchup. Head coach Svetislav Pesic, who led Valencia to its last EuroLeague Playoffs berth in 2011, leaned heavily on former Valencia players Neno Dimitrijevic and Vladimir Lucic to spark the response.
Dimitrijevic has been Bayern's main point guard since his arrival earlier this month and had a strong performance against Valencia, finishing the game with season-highs of 12 points and 7 assists against just 1 turnover for a PIR of 16 off the bench. He scored back-to-back baskets late in the game to help Bayern seal the outcome, 89-78 with over 3 minutes remaining.
Lucic has deeper roots with Valencia; he played there for three seasons and helped the team win its third EuroCup title in 2014. He had a strong start and led Bayern to a 53-44 halftime lead with outstanding numbers. Before the break, Lucic had 13 points on 6-of-6 free throw shooting, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 fouls drawn for a PIR of 21. He finished with 19 points and a PIR of 26, both season-highs.
This was not the first time that Lucic had a great game against Valencia. He posted a career-high PIR of 35 on November 13, 2020, when he led Bayern to a 90-79 victory with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 8 fouls drawn.
After the game, Lucic stressed out the importance of bouncing back after an underwhelming performance on Tuesday night.
"The goal was to stop Valencia's transition game. I have been there, spent three years there and had a chance to be coached by Pedro [Martinez]. And I think that the team really fits perfect to his style. So we did a pretty good job stopping [their] transition," Lucici said. "We tried to bounce back after the defeat. We had two days here just trying to recover a little bit and go to the next one."
Once again, Justinian Jessup played a big role off the bench. In just 18 minutes, Jessup had 16 points and 3 rebounds for a PIR of 19. Over the last six games, Jessup has averaged 13.8 points on 77.3% two-point and 53.8% three-point shooting and a PIR of 16.0.
"Super important win. Valencia is obviously a very good team, so for us to come out with a lot of energy, a lot of effort, execute the game plan and come away with the win, it was big," Jessup said. "We got guys that can shoot the three ball really well. And also, I would say versatile players: Zay [Isiaha Mike], Andy [Obst], Lucha [Vladimir Lucic] all can do multiple things on the court, as well as Neno [Dimitrijevic]. They definitely showed it tonight and helped us get the win."
Bayern struggled from beyond the arc against Partizan, making just 7 of 27 three-point shots with elite shooter Andreas Obst sidelined by illness. Coach Pesic's team proved not to depend on Obst's shooting as much as people think. Even though Obst when 1 of 7 from downtown against Valencia, his teammates combined to make 8 of 20 three-pointers (40% 3FG) to get the win. Power forward Isiaha Mike, who had a PIR of -10 against Partizan, bounced back with 14 points on 3-of-6 three-point shooting, 6 rebounds and 3 assists for a PIR of 14. Bayern finished the game with twice as many assists (24) as turnovers (12) and a season-high PIR of 119.
