"He's a killer," claims Luke Sikma.

The praise goes to his Berlin teammate Maodo Lo, a basketball pro who is not at all threatening: an elegant athlete, less than two meters long, slim, quick on his feet and even quicker in his head.

This weekend the two want to win the cup with Alba Berlin.

Michael Reinsch

Correspondent for sports in Berlin.

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To do this, they have to defeat Niners Chemnitz in the semifinals on Saturday (7.30 p.m. at Magenta Sport) and win the final against Crailsheim or Braunschweig on Sunday.

When Alba won the tenth and last time in this competition two years ago, Lo was playing for Bayern Munich and was eliminated in the round of 16.

Now Lo and Berlin are favourites.

Defending champion Bayern did not make it into the top four again.

"Would be cool to win," says Lo.

"I've only won the trophy once." That was when he switched from college in America to the legendary Bamberg Euroleague team with Nikos Zisis, Nicolo Melli and Darius Miller six years ago.

Since then he has become champion three times, with Bamberg, with Bayern and last year with Alba.

His apprenticeship is over.

Alba formed the team around the 29-year-old.

There is no one like Lo in the league or in the Euroleague.

He's the son of an artist and you get the impression you can see it.

He scored an average of 13.3 points per game this Euroleague season;

in the seven international games since the break in January, which resulted in a corona outbreak in the team, he has increased his yield to an average of 15 points with 3.5 assists.

He scored 21 points in the narrow defeat against Real Madrid.

Maodo Lo from Berlin, overlooked by Alba's scouts and the selection coaches when he was growing up in the city, is one of the best playmakers in Europe - with his very own signature.

Lo's spectacular feints

Alba plays as Jackson Pollock painted, Lo said when the "Tagesspiegel" portrayed him together with his mother Elvira Bach.

She is one of the young savages, and some of her paintings feature her son's facial features.

Pollock, the hero of action painting, dripping and splattering paint on the canvas: does he represent wild, effortless basketball?

"It's not like that," Lo replies.

"Pollock has a structure and an approach that he has adhered to." There is also this in his team: "The game is read and you improvise, make decisions based on the situation instead of sticking to a system."

The painter Pollock had a rhythm, and so does the basketball player.

"Rhythm is a feeling," says Lo.

"It has to do with the pace of the team and the pace at which you play yourself.

Rhythm can also be something like momentum, something intangible, an atmosphere.

Something you can feel.” The comparatively small Maodo’s provocative dribbling, his habit of repeatedly playing the ball between his own legs, has become the art of forcing opponents into a dance in which they rarely look good .