By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
One day after receiving a vote of confidence from Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, Dante Exum delivered his best game yet with the Blaugrana jersey.
Exum finished with a team-high 17-tying PIR by posting 12 points, six rebounds and two steals in 18:29 as Barcelona routed Panathinaikos 86 – 60 at home to register its third straight EuroLeague win.
“I think it has been a long week for us, we had three games and wanted to come out firing,” Exum said. “That’s what we came out and won. I think I am just going game by game, making sure I do what I do, going out there, hitting shots… as long as we are winning, that’s all that matters, really.”
Nigel Hayes-Davies had 14 points and also 17 PIR for Barcelona, 10 of them in the first half that finished 45 – 25 for the hosts. Panathinaikos, that lacked quality options in the absence of Nemanja Nedovic and Ioannis Papapetrou, was just unable to be competitive enough to turn the game around and trailed by a deficit beyond 20 points for the rest of the match. The Greens shot poorly from the perimeter (1-12) and committed 17 turnovers.
George Papagiannis finished with 18 points on 8-10 shots while Daryl Macon scored 12 for Panathinaikos that was overwhelmed 28 – 10 in the second quarter, never to recover. Exum scored seven unanswered points to open the period and set the pace for Barca’s dominance and then Hayes-Davies took over to close the first half in style for their team.
Barca kept playing efficiently to cruise to an easy win, their 19th victory over 24 regular-season games. Panathinaikos fell to 5-17.
“Unfortunately, we had some guys that we lost in the last possession, like the game at home against Barcelona,” Panathinaikos coach Dimitris Priftis said. “This is something that we want to change. We will not be without concern in the EuroLeague, we will fight for every game and try in every game. Unfortunately, we came here tonight without some players, so we have to consider also that. We have to continue and do our best. The season is long. No loss is acceptable and we don’t accept any loss. Of course, we are disappointed. It is a lesson for us, for the way that Barcelona is playing and its level of physicality.”
Not the usual suspects
Only two Barcelona players (Hayes-Davis and Rolands Smits) played more than 20 minutes since Saras distributed playing time among all of his 12 guys in light of a tough schedule.
He was pleased to see that they made the most out of the minutes they go
“It was important to get a win, there is no question, at home,”Jasikevicius said.” Also, we have to be very happy with some performances. Some guys have been struggling and we understood that they were a little bit nervous about their form and this was, for me, as important as the win. I think Nigel [Hayes-Davis], Dante [Exum], every time they are looking much better, Sergi [Martinez] was really solid, and overall, I think we achieved not just one win, but also confidence for some players, which is very important. The guys played the minutes they had to play and were very solid. It was our fourth game in seven days. It was not easy but now we to get a little bit of rest, practice and hopefully move on to the next games.”