Panathinaikos – Maccabi 87-91: His party was ruined

By Vangelis Papadimitriou/ [email protected]

Maccabi did not “bend” from the “hot” OAKA and made it 0-1 against Panathinaikos with a score of 87-91.

The Israelis did not shy away from -12, they came back into the match, despite the departure of Baldwin with an injury in the 32nd minute, and took the home advantage in their hands.

The American was tied at 73-73 when he left with a thigh problem, with Brown and especially Colson adequately covering his absence, with the former making a clutch basket at -35″.

Slukas made a mistake on his team’s next attack, Nimbo won the foul and with 2/2 shots made it 87-91 at -3”, with Maccabi making the long-awaited break.

The series will resume at OAKA on Thursday (25/4, 21:15), before it moves to Belgrade (30/4 Game 3, 2/5 Game 4).

See here the match statistics

The evolution

The game started at a very good pace from both teams, with Maccabi taking the lead 9-12. Panathinaikos reacted, mainly in the attack and thus did not let the difference slip away (14-19), with Grigonis being… hot with 9 points and 3/4 three-pointers, for the marginal lead of the Israelis with 25-26 in the first period.

The greens continued to have a good rhythm in the attack and with Lesor doing damage to the racket and Vildosa hitting three three-pointers, +11 (43-32) for the “clover” was not long in coming. Panathinaikos was able to largely limit Boldwin and Brown, after having the incredible 11/11 two-pointers and thus the half ended at +8 with a score of 50-42.

56-44 at the beginning of the third quarter showed that Panathinaikos had the upper hand, while Colson was the only stable offensive pillar of Maccabi. The difference may not have escaped, as Maccabi found a way to stay in the score, as it was seen with 66-61 at 27′ and 67-63 at 28′, with Kalaitzakis signing 70-63 at 30′.

Baldwin with five straight points cut to 70-68. At 75-73, however, the former left injured with 8 minutes remaining. At the same time, Lessor threw a “party” on the Maccabi racket, with Colson and Brown making it 77-81, with the latter making it 81-85 in the 38th minute. Grant hit a big 3-pointer for 85-87 at 39′, with the American making a steal and Nunn leveling at -52′ at 87-87. Brown scored at -35” (87-89), Slukas made a crucial error and Niebo with 2/2 shots wrote the final 87-91.