By Panos Katsiroubas/ info@eurohoops.net
An important game took place in Barcelona with FC Barcelona Lassa hosting and comfortably defeating Panathinaikos Athens 77-52 in one of the classic derbies in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague. Both teams looked like they were struggling to find their footing at several points in the game and offered a mediocre spectacle based on their rosters. Especially Panathinaikos presented a disappointing image in the offensive part, primarily in set plays. With 2 out of 14 three-point field goals and 18 mistakes, the visitors couldn’t get any luck.
The game started out with the two teams trying to find their footing in the offensive part and scoring scarcely. Two consecutive three-point field goals executed from the weak side by Stratos Perperoglou gave Xavi Pascual’s an early lead. The Catalans’ main objective was to get the ball in the post frequently with Samardo Samuels, with the Greens not allowing the ball to get there easily.
A big issue in set offense
The big issue for Panathinaikos was in the offensive part. With Miroslav Raduljica getting charged with 2 offensive fouls early on due to the good defense of his opponents, the main offensive pillar was out of the game, as was the Greens’ overall offense. Xavi Pascual’s team coped well with the pick and rolls and didn’t allow any room for open shots from the part of Panathinaikos.
Barcelona took advantage of their opponents’ mistakes – 11 in total in the first half – and the team’s players ran at every opportunity and scored easy points on the open court. The Greek team could threaten substantially only with intermediately paced offenses before the Spanish defense had a chance to set up for a 5v5 situation. But, beyond this, Panathinaikos had no other consistent point of reference on the offensive end since they didn’t have a fixed direction, while the threat from the perimeter was minimal (1 out of 7 three-pointers in the first 20 minutes).
Aleksandar Djordjevic tried to halt Barcelona’s rhythm with a zone, initially creating some problems for Pascual’s team as they stalled in their attacks with a lot of dribbling and minimal circulation of the ball, but as time went by they found some open shots in the gaps along the zone, which provided some scoring opportunities for the Catalans.
They found a formation in defense but not in offense
In the 2nd half Panathinaikos’s players stepped up their intensity levels in defense with the undersized line-up of Antonis Fotsis and James Gist putting a lot of pressure on Barcelona’s guards on the screens, with offensive hedge outs, but also speed in their movements. The Greens stole balls and scored on the open court. They also preyed on Ante Tomic’s slow feet in penetrations, getting some scoring in this way as well.
Bad reading of the game in offense
The bad thing about the Greek team was that despite their good defenses, their players didn’t stop wasting the ball in offense and miss open shots from the perimeter. After the 48-41, it took the visitors 4:30 minutes to score a point and even though Barcelona didn’t have any special offensive rhythm going, they managed to maintain a steady lead in margins that reached or even exceeded the 10-point threshold.
In the final period, the pattern of the game showed no major changes, with the Greek team consistently missing the target form the perimeter, Barcelona constantly double-teaming any player who tried to post up, with Panathinaikos’s players not reading the game well enough and not seeing the passes for open shots. The Catalans kept on scoring on the open court and took advantage of Samuels’s strength inside the paint. That’s right about where the game was decided, with the home team getting into a rhythm and driving the lead up to 25 points.