By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Playing without Kostas Sloukas and Lorenzo Brown in the backcourt, while missing Kostas Antetokounmpo in the front line, on paper Partizan had a good chance to upset Panathinaikos.
Still, when everything was said and done, the Greens got the 96-84 win over Partizan to keep things rolling.
Kendrick Nunn with 25 points was once more the star of the show, Cedi Osman had 18 and Omer Yurtseven added 17 points.
Also, Juancho Hernangomez had 15 points, including some key shots in the game and Jerian Grant had a full stats line with 14 points, seven rebounds, and eight assists without missing a shot.
It was a career night for Grant with a personal best of 33 PIR.
“I knew I was going to play big minutes tonight because some guys were hurt and we had to step up”, he admitted referring to injured Sloukas and Brown.
On the other side, Sterling Brown had 23 points and Brandon Davies added 19 but it was not enough.
Panathinaikos tied Monaco with a 13-7 record and currently sits in a tie in the second spot of the standings, while Partizan dropped to 9-11, staying one win away from the play-ins line.
A Green explosion
Panathinaikos managed to get a 49-38 halftime lead thanks to 18 points by Kendrick Nunn, who once more was a one-man offense.
However, Partizan was in the game and managed to trim the lead to six points (62-56) after a three by Iffe Lundberg making things interesting, three minutes before the end of the third period.
With the game on the line, Panathinaikos managed to get a 75-63 distance at the end of the quarter, after a three at the buzzer by Juancho Hernangomez.
Partizan tried to make one last effort to trim the lead, but one more three by Juancho made the score 80-67 and it was the start of an 11-1 run (88-68) that put the game out of reach.
Suddenly the goal of the home team ended up being getting – just in case – the tiebreaking advantage after losing by 18 at Belgrade. They couldn’t do that, as Partizan reacted on time and closed the gap in the end.
Photo credit: Eurokinissi