In the end, seven points made the difference: In the fourth final game of the German basketball championship, Alba Berlin won against FC Bayern Munich - and successfully defended the title in the Bundesliga.

The Berliners won 86-79 in the game and 3-1 in the series.

And although the most important question in German basketball has been decided for this season, a not unimportant question is still open - and will probably not be answered any more: Has the team that was best won or the one that has more strength had left?

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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    This weekend you could see why many considered the schedule of the final series, in which four exhausting games had been played since last Wednesday, to be unreasonable.

    On Saturday afternoon, when Bayern lost in their own hall (69:81) and fell 2-1 behind, both Vladimir Lucic and DJ Seeley, two of their most important players, buckled and had to be treated.

    They played again on Sunday lunchtime.

    That can't be healthy.

    Especially not in a season in which the professionals from Munich and Berlin seem overloaded anyway because of the many missions and trips in the Bundesliga and the Euroleague.

    A few days ago, the employees of Basket Data Scouting, an online portal for basketball analysis, created an interesting ranking list.

    They added up which team had to play and how often.

    Operation with Paul Zipser

    On Sunday Bayern made their 90th and Berlin their 83rd game. They are now in first and fifth place in the global ranking. And so it shouldn't be surprising that the duel between the two best German basketball teams went as Nihad Djedovic, the captain of Bayern, had predicted: “I assume that the final series won't show that much in terms of quality . "

    In any case, there was a shadow over this series of finals because Paul Zipser, the national player from Munich, had to undergo surgery last Wednesday because of a brain hemorrhage. "Paul is doing well under all circumstances, we don't want to say anything more about this," said the Munich media director Andreas Burkert: "We also ask the public for understanding to respect the privacy of Paul and his family in the near future." On Sunday the Bayern players who were not in the squad and were sitting behind the basket wore jerseys with the number 16 on their backs. This is Zipser's number.

    From the front row they had to watch as their tired teammates struggled from the first minute to get the ball through the ring. In the first quarter they only managed nine points. The result: 9:21. But as so often this season, Bayern caught up point by point. That evening, the Berliners had an answer in the moments when things really got tight. To be precise, Jayson Granger had an answer.

    The American playmaker hit five of eight three-point throws and collected 29 points in the end. "He was excellent," said Alba coach Aíto García of his playmaker, who was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final series. And despite this extraordinary individual performance, the Berliners led with only one point ten seconds before the end, 80:79. Then they passed the ball so skillfully that Lucic stopped them with a tough foul. They decided the game at the free throw line. Granger sank the last two.