By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos Athens showed Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir the other side of the Turkish Euroleague Airlines, after the big win of the newcomers in the competition over FC Barcelona Lassa. With their defense along the perimeter and their pressure on the ball being their biggest weapons, the Greens dominated early on, secured 10-point – and even bigger – leads and weren’t threatened at any point in the game.
Super facilitation – offensive defense
Nick Calathes and Dimitris Diamantidis dominated on both ends of the court. Panathinaikos’s captain climbed at 9th position on the all-time scorer list surpassing the veteran Serbian scorer, Igor Rakocevic, and James Gist scored 27 points, which is a personal best for him in the Euroleague!
Panathinaikos’s players pressed hard on the ball and they managed to create a lot of problems in Pinar Karsiyaka’s circulation of the ball. They stole a lot of balls and they forced their opponents to make 7 mistakes in the first 10 minutes. Through their effective defense they scored several points in transition, closing out the 1st quarter with +15 (30-15). They effectively prevented the penetrations of Karsiyaka’s explosive guards and they threw their bodies in front of their shots, making it hard for the Turkish team to score.
In offense, Panathinaikos were fortunate enough to have Nick Calathes on a really good day in terms of facilitation, who read the game amazingly after a screen and always passed the ball at the right time, either inside the paint or out to the perimeter for open shots.
The way he passes and moves is truly exemplary. He finished the game with 11 assists (a personal best in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague) and together with Dimitris Diamantidis they had a total of 19 assists. The home team had good movement on the open court, made some good screens on the ball and some good blocks in the paint, opening up Karsiyaka’s defense in a number of ways.
The only point at which the Turkish team seemed threatening was at the end of the 2nd and the start of the 3rd period.
They threw them off rhythm
They took advantage of the bad reactions of the centers in Panathinaikos’s defense. Sasa Djordjevic went back to a small line-up with James Gist and Antonis Fotsis in the ‘4’ and ‘5’ positions and the Greens regained their toughness in defense and flexibility in offense.
Pinar Karsiyaka attempted 31 three-pointers, most of them right before the shot clock expired, under bad circumstances.
In their win over Barcelona, Karsiyaka struck on the pick and roll with the drives of their athletic guards and with passes inside the paint to Colton Iverson. He shot only 17 three-pointers, 14 less than he attempted against Panathinaikos. Clearly, the winners drove Karsiyaka out of rhythm offensively.
The flaw
The only negative that we have to note? Panathinaikos were forced to play with a small line-up for a long time since the presence of Ognjen Kuzmic and Miroslav Raduljica in defense was slightly problematic. Raduljica was loaded with fouls easily mostly because of wrong positioning and slow reactions.
The two Serbian centers played 26 minutes on the court in total, while Gist reached 30. In the long run, such a management may have an impact on the freshness of players with overloaded roles. Djordjevic’s players are playing well; they work hard in defense, and have diversity and are functioning well in offense. Very positive elements if we consider that we’re still at the start of the season and the teams still don’t have the requisite chemistry.