Game 4 in any best-of-five playoff series is always going to be an occasion for heightened tension, because by simple deduction, one team is 2-1 and on the brink of a series victory while the other is 1-2 and facing elimination. In other words, both have reasons to feel the pressure.
Game of the Week: What Bayern has built will outlast Game 4
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When you talk about the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs, the expectation is even more excruciating, because hanging in the balance is a trip to the Final Four, which is a definition of success at this level and the paramount aspiration of all teams.
If you make the Final Four, you can fight for a title, but if you don't few will remember that you came close.
There's a bit of a David vs. Goliath theme attached to one of the Game 4s on Friday, when FC Bayern Munich hosts FC Barcelona, but it has nothing to do with the clout of the clubs, two of the best-known in the world of sports.
Bayern's recent ascension to the European basketball elite has an air of inevitability to it, like this club will be in a Final Four sooner or later. Heck, if not for one buzzer-beater last year, Bayern would already have made the big dance after what was the first-ever EuroLeague Playoffs appearance by any German club.
Barca, of course, has been at the height of the EuroLeague for decades and has a pair of hard-earned titles to show for it. Those two trophies came amid six losses with the cup within reach, however, including last season, when Barca fell to Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the championship game.
Always-candid head coach Andrea Trinchieri has been realistic throughout this series about Bayern's monumental task against Barca, the team that finished atop the regular-season standings.
"If they play good and we play good, they are going to win," he stated flatly before Game 1. "If they play good and we play excellent, still they may win. Okay, so they are No. 1, we are No. 8. We miss players, we are fighting, we are crawling."
In Game 1, in addition to the game itself, Bayern lost another player, its top scorer, Darrun Hilliard, to a shoulder injury. In Game 2, though, Bayern gave a lesson in character, epitomized by Nick Weiler-Babb's first-half save, that other underdog teams in any sport at any level, should study. The resulting 75-90 victory on Goliath's court evened the series at 1-1.
After that win, when euphoria might have seeped in, Trinchieri's first words were: "At least we're going to have two home games. I'm very realistic. Barca has been in these situations already. They know how to navigate through this... We are playing against the best team, the best coach, the best system. And it's a great challenge."
Indeed, its home loss snapped Barca's attention back to the fact that getting to the Final Four comes first, and only then can they begin to focus on going a step further than last year. Sure enough, Barca owned Game 3, never trailing or even being tied between the tipoff and the final buzzer on Bayern's floor.
"I'm not desperate, I'm not overwhelmed. It's exactly how I expected the game," Trinchieri said after that loss.
And before tonight's do-or-die home game for his team:
"We're still in the series. There's no reason to be frustrated after losing to the best team in the EuroLeague. As after the first game, we will try to find solutions and fight as well as we did after halftime" of Game 3.
Clear-minded communication such as Trinchieri's is how team culture is developed. It doesn't come from wild expectations and swings between euphoria and disappointment from either fans or management. It comes from being candid and realistic. And to be realistic, you have to understand and respect yourself, your competition and the larger context of unpredictability that makes sports compelling to millions.
That unpredictability requires putting yourself in a position to make your own luck, to have a fortuitous bounce of the ball mean something because you were already in the game. You also have to be aware that the reverse may be true, that for all your meticulous preparation and performance, the other team that has tried just as hard can hit a last-second buzzer-beater that claims the result you both strived for.
None of which is to say that Bayern can't win the last two games of this series; not at all. But not surviving this playoff will only be a cause for disappointment if Bayern goes down without a fight. And that is not happening, as we've already seen in this series. The culture has been built and even a blowout loss will not shake it now. In consecutive playoff seasons, Bayern has shown what it takes to stay in the elite for the long haul. Game 4, win or lose, will surely add to that growth process, but from last season's playoffs to this season's, one thing has become crystal clear: Get used to it, because Bayern is around to stay.