The most exciting time of the basketball championship season starts this weekend. In the women’s and men’s LBBL, the first game of the 1/4 finals will be played. Teams will compete in a best-of-3 series in the quarter finals and the semi finals. While the first game of the quarter finals is scheduled this weekend, the second game will be played already next Wednesday/Thursday and a potential decisive game 3 will be played next weekend so that the first round will be decided in only one week.
Matchups in the men’s league
Saturday:
20:00 Amicale Steinsel (1) – AB Contern (8)
20:15 Basket Esch (2) – Résidence Walfer (7)
20:15 T71 Dudelange (3) – Sparta Bertrange (6)
Sunday:
17:15 Etzella Ettelbruck (4) – Arantia Larochette (5)
Last season, the number 7 seed (Amicale) and number 8 seed (T71) were able to qualify for the finals after the play-offs. This showed that everything is possible in this relatively new play-off format. This year, champion Steinsel enters the play-offs as the number one seed and will face Contern, the team of coach Gabor Boros is the clear underdog because Amicale has been playing consistent basketball all season long.
Basket Esch has home court against Résidence, a team that could be consiedered the wild card of the play-offs this season. With their newly acquired professional player Daniel Mullings and the announcement that the club will play with as many non-JICL players as their opponent, it will be interesting to see what lineup coach Alexis Kreps will use in this first round. After struggling in the second round of the season, Résidence remains a very strong team on paper.
T71 Dudelange faces a very difficult opponent with Sparta Bertrange, a team that has been playing extremely well since 2023 with their new coach Christophe Flammang. These games should become a thriller for all basketball fans.
Cup winner Etzella is challenged against Arantia, it is the duell between the league’s MVP Philippe Gutenkauf (Etzella) and the coach of the year Christophe Ney (Arantia). Similar to Sparta, Arantia has been playing extremely well over the last weeks and Etzella knows that they need to be at their best to win this series.
Matchups in the women’s league (all games on Saturday)
17:00 Sparta Bertrange (3) – Amicale Steinsel (6)
18:00 T71 Dudelange (1) – Musel Pikes (8)
18:30 Gréngewald Hueschtert (2) – Basket Esch (7)
18:30 Résidence Walfer (4) – AB Contern (5)
In the women’s play-offs, league leader T71 is the favorite against the Musel Pikes. At the awards night, Jérôme Altmann (coach of the year) and Ehi Etute (MVP and U21 player of the year) underlined the dominance of the club this season. Cup winner Gréngewald is the clear favorite in their matchup against Basket Esch, the « GREENS » have not lost a game in 2023 and will try to protect home court on Saturday evening.
The series between Sparta and Amicale should become one at even level, Sparta earns home court advantage and therefore has a small advantage but the team from Steinsel is certainly able to surprise the opponent on a strong night on the road. Résidence and Contern both had a 12:8 record in the regular season so that their series has no favorite before the start, Walferdange wants to use home court advantage to strike first.
Next to the play-offs, the play-down will also start in both the women’s and the men’s league:
