By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Jabari Parker scored a game-high 17 points and was impactful on both ends as Barcelona defeated Panathinaikos Athens 80 – 72 in a manner easier than what the final score suggests. The Blaugrana were up even by 28 points (75 – 47) early in the fourth period before a 0-14 run by their opponents that just served to reduce the deficit below a “blowout” margin.
Parker, in his highest-scoring game with Barca and his top overall performance, shot 7-12 from the field and also contributed five rebounds and two steals, being an important factor in the win. With the score 33 – 28, he dropped six unanswered points to put the hosts up by double figures and then made buckets as his team took a 65 – 43 advantage near the end of the third quarter.
“Great team, you got to do your homework for them [Panathinaikos],” Parker said. “Yeah from the get-go,” he added on his adaptation. “It’s the game of basketball. I’ve played it all my life. It’s easy when you have guys like this on the team. It makes my job easy.”
Panathinaikos’ substitutes like Olek Balcerowski (10 out of his season-high 12 points in the fourth period), didn’t stop playing when down 28, and Barcelona players relaxed a bit too much, as the visiting side began chipping away bits and pieces of the deficit to approach 75 – 61 with 3:26 to play.
James Nnaji scored the first Barca points in five minutes with a free and then dunked the ball for the 78 – 61 as the game was entering crunch time.
Oriol Pauli had 12 points, Tomas Satoransky produced 10 points plus seven rebounds and Nikola Kalinic scored 10 points of his own for Barcelona which was without guards Rokas Jokubaitis and Nicolas Laprovittola.
“These things happen,” said Barca coach Roger Grimau on his team losing that big lead. “We could get some minutes to some players who really deserved to play and for this reason I’m happy. They are great players and sometimes I’m frustrated because I can’t give them the minutes they deserve.”
Ataman criticizing “big names”
Panathinaikos had their own fair share of absences with guards Kostas Sloukas and Luca Vildoza apart from forward Ioannis Papapaetrou. Jerian Grant led the Greens with 15 points and Marius Grigonis had 11 points. Dimitris Moraitis was also positive, being on the court when the Greek team reacted in the fourth period with five points and four assists.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman. In the post-game presser, he talked about the club possibly signing another new player after Kendrick Nunn while criticizing the lackluster performance of some of the team’s “big names” and more specifically Juancho Hernangomez
Photo: Barcelona