By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With five players in double figures and a particularly strong performance in the second half, Olympiacos Piraeus beat archrival Panathinaikos Athens 92 – 86 in Game 2 of the Greek League Finals to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
Olympiacos can finish the job Monday (10/6) at Panathinaikos while the latter will enter “do-or-die” situations.
Nigel Williams-Goss scored a team-high 19 points for Olympiacos, including a key triple that put his team up 85 – 76 with 2:07 to play. Nikola Milutinov added 17 points plus nine rebounds while Isaiah Canaan had 16 points.
After Panathinaikos led up to eight points (28 – 36) and closed halftime up 28 – 29, Canaan lit the fuse for Olympiacos in the third period with eight straight points for a 50 – 43 Reds advantage. Thomas Walkup then gave the hosts a 60 – 46 push for their biggest lead in the game.
Panathinaikos tried to come back in the game, led mainly by an unstoppable Mathias Lessort (21 points on 9-10 shots, nine rebounds). His team cut the deficit to 7 and then approached 79 – 74 with 3:54 to play.
Once again, Canaan gave the solution to Olympiacos with a 3-pointer and then Williams-Goss added his own to keep their team at a distance. With 38 seconds remaining, when Canaan and Kostas Sloukas exchanged words and gestures, Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman got involved, receiving a technical foul. When he protested, he got another “T” and was ejected for a second straight game after Game 1.
Kendrick Nunn contributed 13 points plus five assists for Panathinaikos but 6 – 17, including 1-8 threes. Sloukas added 12 points (eight in the first period) and five assists of his own.
Olympiacos coach Giorgos was asked about the whole incident in the press conference and stated: “I don’t want to comment on that. That’s what we all said before the finals, try not to put more fuel to the fire. The team and I are moving in the same spirit. Whether something was done from the other side for their reasons, I don’t know. There was a confrontation between Canaan and Sloukas and coach Ataman intervened. He entered the court once more. It’s his way of dealing with things, which we respect.”
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