By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
BERLIN– When I began telling Panathinaikos Athens center Mathias Lessort the numbers he had in the win of his team over Fenerbahce Beko in the EuroLeague semifinal, he asked to see the stats sheet.
I gave my phone to him and he began commenting out loud.
“I missed four shots. Five free throws. And I have a lot of turnovers,” said Lessort while scrolling through his statline. Indeed, he shot 6-10 on 2-pointers, had 5-10 free throws and committed a game-high five turnovers.
But Lessort finished the match with game-highs 17 points and 10 rebounds, two steals and one block, just for the icing. He played 31:47 (only Kendrick Nunn spent more time on the court from Panathinaikos with 34:44) and clashed against an opposing center lineup almost by himself.
It was another day at the office for him, since he have had this kind of numbers several times this season en route to making All-EuroLeague First Team for second straight year. But this time, he delivered them in the big stage of the Final Four.
And they weren’t enough for him.
“It’s a lot of points that I left out,” Lessort mentioned. “A lot of possessions I didn’t finish. This is my job, to finish this kind of stuff. Obviously, we did a great job as a team. I’m very hard on myself. Taking care of the ball.. Knock down my free throws. Its a matter of me being focused. We got to be ready for Sunday.”
Panathinaikos suffocated Fenerbahce with a defensive masterclass. The Greens eliminated all weapons of the Turkish side and forced them into scoring just 14 points in the third quarter and a mere seven in the fourth period.
“This is the key,” Lessort said. “To be ready. To play hard on defense. To fight for every ball and to be able to secure every rebound. Being good? Being good isn’t enough for me. I want to be excellent. I wasn’t excellent tonight. Maybe I was good. But I’m not satisfied with this.”