After 12 years of absence, Panathinaikos returns to play in the EuroLeague Final Four, 13 years after the last title won with Obradovic at the helm. After an interminable series and after going down in game 1 against Maccabi TA, and tonight resisting the injury that deprived her of Kostas Sloukas (calf) with 5’39” left in the last quarter, Ataman’s team drove the sold-out crowd of OAKA, owner Giannakopoulos and Luka Doncic crazy with joy who, a few hours after his match with the Mavericks followed the event with stories on Instagram.
Maccabi starts aggressively, the Greens shoot 3/10 and the match becomes uphill (8-15 at 6′). A burst of liveliness allows them to recover at the end of the quarter (19-21) and play the second period head-to-head. Panathinaikos, with an 8-2 break, takes a 32-30 lead in the 15th minute, but fails to maintain the momentum while Kattash receives something from all its players on the pitch (34-39 in the 18th minute). With a 5-0 run, Panathinaikos equalized again (39-39 at 19′), in a real match and an incredible setting. The first half ends at 41-41.
The defenses dominate in the first 5′ of the second half (49-49). If Maccabi then scores a useful 4-0, Pana turns the scoreboard upside down before Tamir Blatt scores a triple (54-56). The 3rd period ends with the “greens” on +2 (58-56) who however pay for their failure from the line with 15/27 shooting. Plus they have to deal with the aforementioned injury to Sloukas, who comes and goes from the field before giving up. But it doesn’t matter, because Nunn and a good defense take the reins of the race.
Thus a 6-0 run puts the Greens ahead by eight points for the first time (64-56 in the 33rd minute), transforming the 20,000 OAKA friends into a real seething volcano. Brown leads the last resistance and, down 10 (68-58 at 35′) responds to Nunn’s triples reducing the difference to 6 points (73-67) 3′ before the final siren. Here it is the French Lessor who dominates on both sides of the field, and with four points he makes up for the inaccuracy in his personal free throws (3/14) until the final apoeosis with the inevitable invasion of the field.
Panathinaikos Athens – Maccabi TA 81-72 (3-2). Boxscore: 26 Nunn, 15 Sloukas, 11 Hernangomez, 10 Papapetrou, 9p+11r Lessor for Panathinaikos; 19 Brown, 14 Nebo, 9 Blatt and Dibartolomeo for Maccabi TA. For Sloukas this will be the tenth Final Four in his career with three different teams.
