By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos won the “derby of the eternal rivals” against fellow Greek powerhouse Olympiacos 93 – 80 for Round 6 of the EuroLeague season to improve its record to 4 – 2.
The game was pretty much a “tale of two halves”. Olympiacos was superior in the first twenty minutes, boosted by some hot shooting from the perimeter, especially courtesy of Janis Timma’s 4/4 triples at the break.
With the score 43 – 51 two minutes into the second half, Panathinaikos began its counterattack. Thanks to some powerful defensive pressure delivered by Nick Calathes and Thanasis Antetokounmpo, the Greens proceeded to have a 13 – 2 partial score to transform a 49 – 53 deficit to a 62 – 55 advantage. Antetokounmpo continued doing damage on both ends, capping his brilliant stretch on both ends with a bucket for the 67 – 57, with less than two minutes to go in the period.
Olympiacos cut the deficit to 67 – 62 heading to the final quarter but it wasn’t enough to steal something from the momentum that Panathinaikos had already built. Lukas Lekavicius gave the hosts 9-point lead for the first time in the game with a bucket from beyond the arc for the 81 – 72 and then hit another one for the 87 – 76 with 1:42 remaining. It was all over.
“We know basketball is a sport in which a lot of mistakes happen, but we made too many in the first 20 minutes, especially on defensive rebounds and one-on-one situations”, said coach Xavi Pascual after the game. “In the second half we changed the rhythm of the game, improved our defense and our rebounding and after that, we found the way to have rhythm, to run primary and secondary options. This is why, in the end, step by step, we controlled the game and won.”
Lekavicius scored a team-high 17 points in quite possibly his top performance with the Greens’ jersey. The same can be said for Thanasis Antetokounmpo whose contribution went beyond the 12 points and two rebounds he registered on the stats sheet. Usual suspect Nick Calathes added 14 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.
Giorgos Printezis was unstoppable with 26 points (10/12 shots, 34 PIR) but he and Timma (17 points with 5/6 triples) were basically the only constant offensive threats for Olympiacos in the game. The Reds didn’t capitalize on their top-notch offensive first half (37 – 46 with one minute left for halftime) and dropped to 3-3.
“We are not going to win many games giving up 20 offensive rebounds – you can write that down and it will prove to be true just about any game you will ever see”, admitted coach David Blatt.
“Panathinaikos is too good of a team to have that those types of opportunities for second and third possessions on one offensive set”.