After the seemingly alarming 85-54 annihilation of ratiopharm Ulm, the Fraport Skyliners didn´t have their usual big celebration routine when they all lie on the floor and perform the Humba dance to the delight of the fans. Instead the players were more reserved and in business like mode which wasn´t surprising since the club still had their backs to the wall and still on a steep climb to get over the annoying hump that ratiopharm Ulm had inflicted upon them. Jordan Theodore had a different mimic than usual as he wasn´t so much the confident tell all story teller about the game, but more reflective and thankful that his season was prolonged and just looking forward one game at a time while his teammate Mike Morrison had his usual post game demeanor of gliding through the arena corridors in a graceful, but quiet manner having unending thoughts about the game and just looking forward to the next challenge in Ulm. In his thoughts, Morrison might also have had NBA player Mareese Speights who has some similarities with the Frankfurt big man in that both come from the beautiful coastal city of St Petersburg in Florida, play the center position, have been at some point in their careers journey men in the NBA and Europe, but as of late found a second home in Oakland and Frankfurt as Speights is playing his third season with the Warriors and Morrison his second with the Fraport Skyliners. The other crucial similarity that both possess at the moment is that they have helped contribute to that 9 lives feeling that both the Golden State Warriors and Fraport Skyliners have had as both have been in a hole with their respective teams fighting to survive in their series. In the last days, it has been Golden State that have set the tone in the comeback trail with the Fraport Skyliners following their lead winning slowly digging themselves out of desperation. With Golden State down 3-1 in games, they showed a strong effort at home winning 120-111 as Curry and Thompson combined for 58 points, but also got an all-around solid effort from Speights with 14 points in nine minutes. The Fraport Skyliners followed this masterful performance with their own fabulous performance with the slaughter against ratiopharm Ulm where they got a total team effort and Mike Morrison flourished with 11 points in 14 minutes and like Speights was very efficient and just dominated the paint as Ulm had no way of keeping him in check. Golden State then followed the Frankfurt lead 10 hours later with a heroic and courageous win on the road coming back from 15 down and winning 108-101 as Klay Thompson exploded with 41 points and Steph Curry quietly added 31 points to deadlock the series at 3-3. In order to keep this perfect fairytale alive, the Fraport Skyliners now have to follow in the Warriors lead and on Tuesday to even the series at 2-2. “We hang out in the summer and workout together and play together also.  Mareese Speights is someone who I definitely look up to. His tweet about how the series was far from over was inspiring and helped me keep my mind in the right place”, stressed Fraport Skyliner Mike Morrison. Cats might be jumping from trees and dodging cars on more of a regular basis than Frankfurt and Golden State are staying alive on the court, but they do it daily while the two basketball clubs only have to do it three more times in their respective series and then hope with less backs to the wall in the next series, but more command and leverage against their next opponent. “I think it is possible that both the Warriors and the Skylines can come back and win their series. Both teams have won their last games and have good momentum and confidence going into the next game. If they can use this to their advantage and come out and take care of their business everything will be ok”, stressed Saarlouis guard Rickey Easterling.

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If someone had had the audacity to have whispered in the ear of Fraport Skyliners head coach Gordon Herbert a few hours prior to game one stating that this wasn´t a late April Fools day joke that eight days later, Frankfurt would be plastered with their backs to the wall down 2-0, he probably would have given a soft response in his low Canadian voice and muttered “I sure hope that doesn´t happen”, but in reality everyone´s thinking in basketball Frankfurt that the Fraport Skyliners would quickly dispose of ratiopharm Ulm and march into the final were about as wrong as anyone that suggested that the Golden State  Warriors would get by the Oklahoma Thunder with ease. In the first two games the Fraport Skyliners played under their capabilities losing that defensive force and edge that had carried them the whole season as they were 21 points over their average giving up 86 points per game instead of 65. They also were unable to match the physicality and cleverness of their opponent as they were only able to get to the free throw line 42 times as Ulm did 78 times. The other big factor for the two loses were their inability to execute in OT as Per Guenther buried them in OT in game one and in game two, Frankfurt let ratiopharm Ulm escape out on a 10-0 run in the last two minutes to prevail and lead 2-0. Having do or die games are never easy, but this season, the 2004 Beko BBL champion has been able to master these type of scenarios rather well as they had a 4-1 record going into game three at home. Frankfurt beat the EWE Baskets Oldenburg to get into the Beko BBL cup Top 4, but lost to Alba Berlin in the cup competition, but disposed of Maccabi Rishon to reach the Fiba Europe Cup Final 4 and there won do or die games against Enisey and Varese. The Fraport Skyliners wanted to keep their illustrious season alive and force a game 4 in Ulm and lived to see another day in basketball terms as they found back to their creative and inspiring Skyliner basketball destroying ratiopharm Ulm 85-54. After the win, Fraport Skyliner guard Jordan Theodore had a different mimic than usual as he wasn´t so much the confident tell all story teller about the game, but more reflective and thankful that his season was prolonged as he discussed why Frankfurt was able to continue. “We had two rough games against ratiopharm Ulm, but got back on track again. The difference was  that we didn´t play Skyliner basketball in the first two games, but did in game three where we executed on offense and scored off our defense and played good defense. I have to credit out bigs for doing a good job on their bigs. We understood that it was a do or die game and just played great defense and kept them out of their comfort zone”, stressed ex Seton Hall point guard Jordan Theodore. Ratiopharm played an inspired game for 15 minutes, but then as if dark storm clubs had come, were unable to execute any longer at a consistent rate on offense and just couldn´t get stops as the Frankfurt offensive arsenal just kept scoring and scoring at a much more consistent rate as in the first two games and more at ease. “Frankfurt wanted it more than we did. They were very aggressive on offense and defense. They did a good job winning the matchup problems and got Raymar Morgan into early foul trouble. You have to give respect to Frankfurt as they played with heart and had to win at home”, stressed ratiopharm Ulm guard Carlon Brown.

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After the satisfying and crushing sweep of 8 time Beko BBL champion Alba Berlin, it seemed like everyone in Skyliner country had fast forwarded to the final and already put in their votes of finals MVP for Jordan Theodore over current MVP Brad Wanamaker and dreaming of a second celebration at the famous Frankfurt landmark Romer. However for some reason everybody seemed to forget about the pesky ratiopharm Ulm who have not only made basketball life extremely difficult for the little darlings of the Beko BBL Frankfurt, but drove the 2016 Fiba Europe Cup champion to the brink of elimination as they have been the huge surprise of the playoffs upsetting the EWE Baskets Oldenburg and now is one game away of reaching the final. Everybody was awaiting a response from the Fraport Skyliners in game two in Ulm after their bitter 90-86 loss in game one at home, but instead lost the game in crunch time for a second time in a row which is as unusual this season for the team as it is for Mike Morrison not to be the recipient of an alley-oop pass and finish with a crushing dunk each game. Following the game at the press conference, Fraport Skyliner head coach Gordon Herbert gave his two cents to the loss and kept it short stating it was difficult to win when the opponent shoots 80 free throws in two games. The facial expression of Herbert during his brief direct words was the kind you would get when your best friend had fooled around with your woman or when the family dog in barren North Dakota where the nearest town is 30 miles away without a sports bar mixes up the remote for some ground beef on the eve of the Super Bowl. One could of painted Gordon Herbert all red and added some feathers and a black beak and he could of fit in well as a replacement for Red in the new flick Angry Birds. Herbert can be as angry as he wants to be, but come Saturday, he will have to funnel that anger into positive energy and help his team break out of this quick sand, because the team is sinking quickly. Frankfurt seems to have the long season talking with their bodies while ratiopharm Ulm seem to be very fresh at the moment. They need to break out their typical Skyliner basketball which is letting their league best defense spark their offense which has that Bamberg junior like tantalizing ball movement to get back on track in this series.

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