By Panos Katsiroumpas / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos played for their life in Belgrade against Red Star, needed a win in order to advance to the playoff round. In the end the defeat didn’t matter at all with Maccabi winning in Berlin and the Greens advancing also even without winning in Belgrade. Despite the happy end the Greens played another mediocre away game, something that creates skepticism if we assume that Panathinaikos needs to win at least once in Moscow against CSKA.
The game was decided from one of the most characteristic plays in this year’s Euroleague, with Marjanovic gaining the offensive rebound against the opponents’ front line, he was fouled and scored the 2 winning free throws.
Panathinaikos started the game terribly in terms of offense especially. With Red Star having a strange defensive strategy, living Marjanovic playing as a goalkeeper inside the paint in order to stop the inside game of Batista and the penetrations of Panathinaikos backcourt. The Serbian giant didn’t rotate at all after the pick, and letting the help come from the perimeter. These trick blocked the passes inside but create many opportunities for open shots from the Greens that started the game with 0/8 behind the 3pt arc.
In such situations 2 things are needed. Tall guys that can shoot the ball effectively from the perimeter and players that can run the court and penetrate in isolations in order not to go with the classic pick n roll offensive style.
Panathinaikos managed to react with these 2 aspects as the main weapon. With Mavrokefalidis and Fotsis they tried to stretch the Serbian defense with their shooting ability, and both of them scored some crucial baskets in order to change the rhythm of the game. Moreover with the entrance of Pappas and Nelson the Greens tried to open the court and scored some baskets in transition and in isolation plays in quickly executed possessions.
The Greens also started to score some 3pointers and finished the game with 8/16 after the 0/8 start of the game (8/24 total). At that time Panathinaikos also stopped the transition of Red Star and created runs, having the lead with 8 points maximum.
In the defensive end Panathinaikos tried to play against Marjanovic without double teams in the majority of the plays. They only send double teams when the MVP of the 1st round was taking the ball from the center of the paint.
Even though Marjanovic didn’t kill the greens offensively, 3 other players did his job. Mitrovic and Kalinic created a lot of problems with their post-game, especially after the switches of Panathinaikos defense.
Mitrovic not only scored, but was excellent in terms of creation, finishing the game with 6 assists. Kalinic also created problem with his powerful game inside, forcing the players of Panathinaikos fouling him and send him to the free throw line for easy points. Kalinic gained 7 fouls and send Nelson and Jankovic to the bench with 5 fouls.
The 3rd player that damaged Panathinaikos was Jaka Blazic with his ability in both transition and weak side execution.
Blazic took advantage of both situations, scoring big time points in the final minutes. As a conclusion we have to give congratulations to Red Star for this great season, introducing new players to European Basketball and having the MVP of the competition Boban Marjanovic. Panathinaikos continues, but needs a lot more in order to be competitive against CSKA.