By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a hard-fought battle at OAKA Arena, neither team managed to pull away for the entire 40 minutes, but Panathinaikos ultimately prevailed in a thrilling finish.
Ergin Ataman’s side improved to 4-4 with a tense 73-71 victory over Zalgiris, as the Lithuanian team fell to 3-5.
Dinos Mitroglou led the scoring for the winning side with 19 points, with only two in the last period, but he stayed on the court for 38 minutes, collected six rebounds, and with a PIR of 23 was the most valuable player in Panathinaikos’ victory.
“It’s all about confidence and chemistry with the teammates. Everybody has been amazing, and we are building something good here. It takes time, but we are on the right track. I’m very happy, but we need to continue building on this win,” Mitoglou said.
Kostas Sloukas scored seven out of his 16 points in the crucial period of the match, Mathias Lessort added 13, and Jerian Grant 10 points, with the US guard also dishing five assists and grabbing four rebounds. Newly signed Kendrick Nunn played for less than six minutes, grabbing a rebound with one steal, but missing three shots from the field.
For Zalgiris, Rolands Smits stood out with 15 points, while Arnas Butkevicius was the only other player in double digits, scoring 10 points but also adding eight rebounds. Laurynas Biruts and Tomas Dimsa added nine points each.
The game of 18 lead changes
PAO didn’t shot exceptionally well, with seven three pointers and 58,1% from the free throw line (18/31). Zalgiris hit three more shots from beyond the arc (10/20) and controled rebounds (34-25), and had two more assists (16-14), but squandered to many possesions with 23 turnovers, which implies that Panathinaikos’s agressive defense was the key to victory, which coach Ergin Ataman confirmed in post-game comments.
“The key was the defense. We played great defense, the only problem was Rolands Smits three point shot. He made excellet field goals, it’s not easy to defend this pick and pop, but we played very good defense on Evans. Ofensively we made a lot of mistakes, but this is EuroLeague, every game is difficult. We started the double week with an important victory,” Ataman explained.
It was a close game with 18 lead changes. Zalgiris gave a good fight, and it wouldn’t be undeserved if they prevailed in the end, but this time Panathinaikos emerged victorious.
“Both teams deserved to win today, so we were good enough, but lacked luck at the end of the game,” head coach of Zalgiris Kazys Maksvytis said.