MIES (Switzerland) - With trips to southern Europe as the only other option on the table, both Telekom Baskets Bonn and SIG Strasbourg will be happy they get to take a four-hour drive to play a road game in the BCLr-Finals, setting up another chapter in the Germany v France rivalry.

How did they get here?

Telekom Baskets Bonn took their game to another level in 2022-23. They stringed together 11 straight BCL wins, becoming just the third team with double-digit winning runs in the history of this competition, following AS Monaco (14 games) and Lenovo Tenerife (12 games).

Bonn went 11-1 in the BCL so far this season and enter April on a 16-game winning streak in all competitions. Overall, they are 18-1 in 2023, and 34-4 in all official games this season. Their only BCL defeat was against UNAHOTELS Reggio Emilia back on Gameday 1.

SIG Strasbourg won their Regular Season group to avoid the Play-In Series drama, and went 8-4 so far in the Basketball Champions League. They had a chance of picking up homecourt advantage in the Quarter-Finals, but Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem edged them out on the final Gameday in the Round of 16.

Even though Strasbourg were efficient in 2022-23, they never had more than two consecutive wins in the BCL. Three of their four defeats came on the road.

What's their biggest plus as a team?

Telekom Baskets Bonn are the best offensive team in the entire BCL, averaging 117.2 points per 100 possessions  and leading the likes of Spanish juggernauts Lenovo Tenerife and Unicaja  in offensive rating.

Coach Tuomas Iisalo can count on extra possessions, too, because his guys grab 36.9 percent of all available offensive rebounds, and they are third in three-point field goal percentage, shooting 38.9 percent from deep.

On the other hand, SIG Strasbourg are third-best in the league in field goal percentage, trailing Tenerife and Unicaja by just 0.2 percent. Even when they are missing shots, they are charging for the offensive rebounds, collecting 33.5 percent of available boards on the offensive end.

Despite not being the tallest team out there, coach Luca Banchi has found an efficient way for Strasbourg to drive  to the rim. His guys average 37.2 points in the paint per game, a huge number compared to Bonn's 33.8 in the same department.

What's their biggest minus as a team?

It's hard to find a thing where Bonn could do better, given their success all over the continent this season. But, they are just 16th in steals (averaging 6.7 per game), and find themselves in the bottom half of the BCL in terms of turnovers, commiting 12.9 per game. This could prove costly against a Top 6 team in steals such as Strasbourg, who come up with 8.3 steals per contest.

The French team are struggling when it comes to free-throws. Shooting 75 percent as a team is not bad at all, but their free throw rate (FT attempt per FG attempt) is  27.1, third-worst rate of all Round of 16 teams.

What's their biggest international success?

Telekom Baskets Bonn have been a part of the German easyCredit BBL since 1996-97, and over the next 25 years they missed out on international competition in just five campaigns. They reached the Semi-Finals of the FIBA Europe Cup in 2016-17, played the Quarter-Finals of the FIBA EuroChallenge in 2008-09 and 2012-13, and the Quarter-Finals of the FIBA Saporta Cup in 2000-01 and 2001-02.

Bonn's previous best mark in the BCL was reaching the Round of 16 back in 2019-20.

Strasbourg's biggest international success was playing the EuroCup Final in 2015-16, when they lost out to Galatasaray in two games. They have been a part of every BCL season to date, reaching the Semi-Finals in 2020-21, and the Quarter-Finals in 2017-18 and 2021-22.

SIGmen finished fourth at the Final 8 in 2021

What's the key matchup?

Bonn's TJ Shorts was selected to the BCL Team of the Month on four occasions this season, winning the MVP of December award in the process. Shorts is the frontrunner to win the MVP of the Season award, averaging 18.6 points, 7.5 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game.

He became the first player in BCL history to score 25+ points in five consecutive games, and he had three points-assists double-doubles in the last four Round of 16 games. The lefty point guard is unstoppable, not just in the BCL, but in the German BBL as well.

Meanwhile, Marcus Keene has been the man of the hour for SIG Strasbourg since Matt Mitchell went down with an injury earlier this season. Keene is another scoring point guard, he's up to 17.3 points per game, with 4.9 assists and 3.3 rebounds also to his name.

Counting just the Round of 16, Keene is the second-leading scorer in the BCL at 19.2 points per game, with Marcus Foster of Rytas Vilnius the only other player to average more points (19.7 per game) during the sweet sixteen phase. 

Have they met before?

Even though SIG Strasbourg faced a lot of German teams on their international travels before, and Telekom Baskets Bonn had their fair share of French adventures, these two met have only twice before.

Back in 2014-15, they were drawn together in the same Regular Season group in the EuroCup, with Strasbourg sweeping Bonn in two games. The first matchup in Germany finished 86-83, while the second one in France saw Strasbourg win 76-48. Paul Lacombe is the only player who was there then, and is there now, playing for SIG Strasbourg.