He was handed over to Barcelona and simply… Panathinaikos saved the show

The match

Panathinaikos started with Lesor, Mitoglou, Huatso, Guy and Grant. The two teams were together at the beginning with Lesor and Guy on the one hand against… Veseli on the other, for 7-7 in the first three minutes. Then the “greens” made unanswered mistakes and Satoranski and Kalinic sent Barcelona to +6 (13-7), but through their defense Ataman’s players responded with Grant and Guy, getting closer to the point (15-14 ), at 5′. Upon entering the floor, Wiley sent the home team to +5 (19-14), but the new response of the “clover” was good defenses along with the “hot” offensive Grant, as a result of which the difference fell to a point again (21-20), at the end of the first period.

A bad start from Panathinaikos in the second quarter, as the miss, as well as the hungry Pauli, created problems for their defense, with Barcelona escaping to +9 (31-22), at 14′. The reaction of the “greens” came with three-pointers by Kalaitzakis and Grigonis (33-28), in the 15th minute. However, afterwards Ataman’s players were “hurt” enough by the lost defensive rebounds and by Parker, who found a rhythm and sent the “Blaugrana” initially to +13 (43-30), while with a basket by Satoranski the difference went even at +14 (45-31), at 19′. In the last phase of the half, Lessor, after his own offensive rebound, made it 45-33.

With mistakes and bad choices in the attack, Panathinaikos entered the second half, with Barcelona “punishing” him in the open field and escaping to +19 (54-35), in the 24th minute. From that point on, the match was at the Blaugrana’s pace, with Ataman’s players just…watching (apart from Grant and Grigonis) the lead slip away from over 20 points (68-45), while Brithuela’s basket in the exhalation, the hosts closed the third period at +24 (71-47).

Barcelona took advantage of Panathinaikos’ series of mistakes and at the beginning of the fourth quarter and with a 4-0 run, they increased the difference to +28 (75-47), at 32′. Afterwards, the Catalans relaxed too much by playing too casually, after Grimaud also took out the “basics”. This was taken advantage of by the “greens”, who led by Balcherovski went on a 14-0 run (75-61), until the 36th minute. Barcelona got away with some starters for a moment, but the “clover” even dropped to -8 (78-70), knowing the defeat with the final 80-72.

The quarters: 21-20, 45-33, 71-47, 80-72

See here the match statistics

Watch the film of the match here