By Panos Katsiroubas/ info@eurohoops.net
The game of Panathinaikos against Barcelona was a high tension and tough game with both teams playing defense in the foul border almost in any possession. In the end Barcelona took a very important away win that gives them advantage for the 2 spots with the home court advantage in the playoffs.
There were 2 key aspects that turn the game in favor of Barcelona after their bad start. The 1st one the post up creations of Satoransky. In the final 5 minutes of the 1st half Barcelona target in every possession the post with the guard from Czech Republic. He passed the ball for 4 assists either to Tomic, immediately when he understood that double team was coming with the rotations of Panathinaikos defense being poor from the weak side, either for Abrines who was taking off ball screens.
The 2nd key was the huge performance in both ends of Tibor Pleiss a player with limited presence in the rotation of Barcelona. In the defensive end he had quick recoveries after the pick n roll of Panathinaikos, stopping the damage that Batista created especially in the 1st period. Moreover he forced Batista to get the ball away from the basket, making more difficult for him to score because he is not so good scorer after dribble. Finally he protected the paint and the rim from the penetrations of Panathinaikos guards.
In the offensive end was also very effective finishing many plays with his quickness after pick n roll plays especially with Marcelinho. Despite the huge pressure in the ball Barca finished the game with 25 assists, with the
2 guards (Satoransky and Huertas) having 10.
Panathinaikos played an excellent 1st period in terms of their offense. They created threats from everywhere, setting plays with more than one player and moving the ball with primary goal to feed Batista inside the paint in positions close to the basket that give him huge advantage to finish the plays. Batista scored 16 points with half of them coming in the 1st quarter.
Barcelona choose to play 2 different defenses depending on the presence of Gist or Fotsis in the court. When Gist was in the court his player (Doellman most of the times) was the 3rd player that was giving helps in the pick n roll leaving open shots for Gist. He attempted 5 shots behind the arc being the leader in this category for Panathinaikos. When Fotsis was inside, they never gave help from the power forward position but they close to the paint with all other playing inside and leaving the weak side open.
Doellman was the hole in the Defense of the Spanish team. He was too slow in the rotations, and couldn’t stop Gist either on the post or after dribble. Despite his defensive inefficiency he was huge in offense scoring big time shots from the perimeter as a weak side executor. He also scored some shots from mid-range, shots that he make all night long as one of his specialists.
The Greens tried to create problems to Marcelinho in terms of his defense trying to post him many times early on with Nelson and Diamantidis. As the game proceed without any reason Panathinaikos stopped this tactical play especially in the 2nd half and didn’t break the rhythm of the Brazilian guard. Moreover the Greens never tried to run and score in transition, something that the majority of the teams that Barcelona plays against do and achieve high scoring from this element.
In the final minutes the game was totally rock n roll! With many possessions being totally out of the tactical plays, tough defenses and many bad shots, the team that scored the biggest baskets and committed less turnovers won. This team was Barcelona that achieved the 4th win in 4 games against Panathinaikos this year.