Panathinaikos presented itself inferior to the circumstances, filled its “empty” intervals and suffered a normal defeat in snowy Kaunas by Zalgiris with 84-77 presenting many defensive weaknesses.
MISSION TO KAUNAS: Giorgos Kouvaris
When the worst attack on Euroleague exposes his defense to such an extent Panathinaikouit was indeed difficult for the “greens” to claim victory in a “hot” and extremely noisy seat. Before the match, the Lithuanians scored only 74.1 points, while in the match against the Greek team they scored… 49 in the first half.
They automatically forced the Greek team to climb a real mountain! Despite the fact that he succeeded Panathinaikos to come back from -18 and even get ahead of the score, in the last period he showed the same symptoms, which he combined with bad choices in the attack.
Result; OR Zalgiris to regain the momentum and force the Greens to their 4th defeat of the season in Euroleague. This is how his very good presence went wrong Yurtseven (16p., 6rib.) with the Zalgiris to hit 13 times outside of 6.75 meters.
The match: Zalgiris – Panathinaikos
Her offensive rebounds Zalgiris at the beginning of the match they played an important role in order to find a score in the attack and lead 9-3 in the 3′ and having Panathinaikos Kendrick Nan with two quick fouls, one of which was a technical penalty under protest. The hosts had found a good rhythm, they were very accurate in the shots inside the guys at the beginning with 4/6 two-pointers and 4/6 three-pointers, as a result they took the lead shortly after five minutes with +11 (20-9). A period where the Sirvindis had 3/4 three-pointers and 9 points and o Walker another 9 points on 4/4 shooting!
The first quarter belonged entirely to Zalgiris as after the (mainly the third) outbreak, he managed to keep the reins on the score, having sent the difference to +12 (28-16) before the end of the period (28-18), the “greens” not being able to stop the offensive crescendo outside from 6.75 meters. The hosts had 4/8 two-pointers, 5/9 three-pointers, 5/7 shots, 5-5 rebounds and 5 assists for a mistake, while the “clover” had respectively 3/5 two-pointers, 2/4 three-pointers, 6/9 shots , 4-1 rebounds and 3 assists for as many fouls, with Nan to have already been “charged” with 3 fouls.
THE Panathinaikos all he managed to do was reduce it to 8 points (28-20) because then the Zalgirs put the foot on the gas again. With excellent ball movement, he found free shots and “bombarded” the “green” basket at will for +18 (44-26 at 15′) with 9/15 three-pointers! Then the Serelis he used a formation with three guards and them Sluka-Yurtseven to make the difference in order to “brake” the Lithuanian team.
The Turkish center was highly effective in the “drawing room” having helped the “greens” 16-5 by the end of the half turning 44-26 into 49-42! In particular, he closed the first half with 14 points (6/7 two-pointers, 2/2 shots), 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal in the 11:49 he played as the Matias Lessor he seemed completely out of the mood for a match. The “greens” closed the half having 11/16 two-pointers, 4/9 three-pointers, 8/11 shots, 11-4 rebounds and 9 assists for 6 errors, while the Zalgiris (Walker 17pt., 3/4dp., 3/4tr., 2/2b.) had 6/14 2-pointers, 10/21 3-pointers, 7/9 shots, 8-8 rebounds and 10 final passes for just 2 errors.
THE Panathinaikos he wanted to enter the second half in order to return to the game. With individual scores of 9-2, the “greens” brought the match even (51-51 at 23′), having made a complete reversal from -18! The first overtaking for the Greek team came with his three-pointer Lorenzo Brown in the 27th minute for 57-59. Nevertheless, he did not manage to maintain it, as the Zalgiris found offensive solutions having left the peripheral shots for 65-59 in the 28th minute with an 8-0 run.
The 3rd period finally brought the hosts ahead with 65-63 having 12/25 2-pointers, 10/25 3-pointers, 11/13 shots, 15-9 rebounds and 12 assists for 5 fouls. While the “greens” had 16/24 two-pointers, 7/17 three-pointers, 10/15 shots, 19-5 rebounds and 15 assists for 8 mistakes. With him Lorenzo Brown to have significantly raised his performance in this period of time.
H difference returned to +12 on behalf of the Lithuanians (78-66) in the 35th minute with the “greens” reminding of… the first quarter and at the same time the Zalgiris to find accuracy again from the perimeter after 0/4 three-pointers in the 3rd period. On the contrary, the players of Serelis saw the opponent’s basket with… a needle’s hole and did not have the offensive “answers” against the Zalgiris. As if the bad defense wasn’t enough, there were also bad choices in the attack and this is how Panathinaikos experienced the normal (as the match unfolded) defeat at the “Zalgirio Arena”.
WHERE JUDGED: At the beginning of the 4th period, when the greens received a 13-3 partial score, as a result of which they found themselves back in the score again with -12 points (78-66 at 35′) and effectively ended the game prematurely.
BEST OF ALL: Lonnie Walker took… for good, having in this match 24 points on 5/7 2-pointers, 4/6 3-pointers, 2/4 shots, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 2 turnovers.
VICTORY CO-COMPETENT: “Vareli” was watching the basket of Panathinaikos, Sirvidis having 19 points with 5/8 three-pointers and 7 rebounds.
THEY EXPECTED MORE: With the exception of a three minute period in the 2nd period, Kostas Slukas did not help Panathinaikos to the best of his abilities.
HIS PERFORMANCE WENT: Omer Yurtseven was very good in the 16 minutes he played having 16 points with 7/9 2-pointers and 6 rebounds.
MATCH STATISTICS: Zalgiris’ initial 9/15 3-pointers for +18 and Zalgiris’ very good assist/fault ratio at 15/7.
THEIR NEXT OBLIGATION: Panathinaikos will welcome Monaco next Friday (29/11, 21:15) for its 12th matchday Euroleague, while respectively Zalgiris Kaunas will host (28/11, 20:00) Baskonia.
The quarters: 28-18, 49-42, 65-63, 84-77.
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