The Gospel according to John Blog – Nikos Papadogiannis

Nikos Papadogiannis saw Panathinaikos find the way in time and expects to see him dressed in his best in the big week to come.

For ten minutes, Panathinaikos floundered somewhere between protests, conspiracies and a fury of pursuit, but the threat of an overturned 0-2 woke the sleepers and brought the mind back to its place, between the ears and not the protests and excuses of some early elimination. The team was not unprepared, just disoriented.

The first to understand the danger and make sure to shake up the rest of the company were those who walked these places again and again and again, with all possible and unlikely jerseys inside and outside the border: the natural leader Kostas Slukas, who is approaching 50 career playoffs games and Ioannis Papapetrou, sidelined in previous games and “necessarily” dressed in a war uniform due to the absence of Juancho.

The night belonged to Slukas, who achieved a personal record for the second night in a row (yesterday in assists, today in points), but Papapetrou has donned the same armband and entered the court as if he had been ready for some time. Within 28 minutes of participation, he offered more than the Spaniard has (not) offered all year.

Papapetrou was initially deployed at “4” to give the irreplaceable tonight Mitoglou a breather, but he quickly moved to his natural position, the one usually covered by Grigonis, Huatso, and even Grant in five midgets. With Ioannis in the “3”, Panathinaikos made the field look smaller in the eyes of the Israelis, became more effective in the air battles, and found a player to properly mark the “long” Colson.

Papapetrou’s 14 points were an invaluable bonus, but it was his contribution at the back that counted above all. The Greek international led the way when everyone else sat idly by and admired Maccabi’s offensive recital, which hit 10 free throws in its first 11 possessions. Kalaitzakis, Antetokounmpo came from the edge of the bench to follow Papapetrou’s example and the green carpet was rolled out for Slukas to even out the difference with his three-pointers.

The message sent by the reserves was clear. Whoever beats Maccabi finds her button and strips her down to reveal her true Baldwin-less self: a team athletic but naive, defensively average, coaching interesting but different, the 7th in this year’s Euroleague hierarchy.

Oded Katas took the ball from the hands of Lorenzo Brown to squeeze Tamir Blat into the same five and inadvertently spread butter on the pan of Panathinaikos. The “greens” rode away on the backs of Sluka and didn’t need either Grant, good Nan, or of course Grigonis.

“Everything went right tonight,” boasted Ergin Ataman, squeezing between the words the inevitable allusions to the refereeing of the first match. “But when you become soft in defense, you allow Maccabi to react and turn a game around in no time.” The visitors’ 0-12 trailing 71-56 (with an Indian zone that confused Ataman’s players) proved to be a swansong for the Israelis, after Jerian Grant returned at the same time as Lorenzo Brown to deliver a free throw with two defenses on the cross. and one assist.

Panathinaikos won by 16, but the real difference can be seen when you remove the inauspicious first period numbers from the equation. In the 30 minutes that followed, the “green” received just 51 points from the best offensive team in the Euroleague, while they outscored them with 75 with 17/21 two-pointers, 9/23 three-pointers and 14/20 shots. It was the defense that made the difference, the defense that is known to end with the rebound. Tonight Panathinaikos renewed more possessions than the famous for its appeal to the offensive rebound Maccabi.

Tonight’s victory was a kiss of life and an injection of oxygen, a huge “must” that was justified, but the road remains uphill. The home advantage has been in the hands of Maccabi since the day before yesterday, even if this home is cold and neutral and boiling water. “Those matches are won by whoever is hungriest,” said the eternally hungry Slukas on spring nights.

Panathinaikos is 12 years away from the final-4 and 11 since it achieved its last away victory in a playoff series. In Belgrade in Holy Week, I expect to see a team that will enter the field with a knife to their teeth. The momentum gained from the first leg was in reverse at full speed, but after tonight (and Barcelona yesterday…) there is no excuse for slackness and inactivity. For the entire organization of Panathinaikos, a really big week is coming.