Βυ Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
Panathinaikos not only lived to fight another day in the Greek Basket League Finals but forced a Game 5 at their homecourt after losing at home the first two games and then winning two on the road!
The Greens defeated Olympiakos 88-85, tied the series at 2-2, and in 48 hours on Friday night we will have a champion no matter what.
With Kendrick Nunn scoring 19 of his 25 points after the break, Ergin Ataman’s men went on a 15-3 run to pull away 81-73 after 36 minutes of action.
Olympiacos managed to trim the lead even two points (85-83) in the closing minute, but couldn’t tie the score. Isaiah Canaan lost two chances in the last seconds to send the game to overtime with a three.
It was a huge turnaround for Panathinaikos who trailed by 10 (51-41) before Jerian Grant miraculously cut the halftime lead to seven points (51-44) after a half-court buzzer-beating three.
“We gave Nunn the ball”
“I think in the first half we were affected by the atmosphere, and also the temperature in the arena was very hot”, said coach Ergin Ataman, “Defensively we made a lot of mistakes. In the second half, we didn’t give them the points in the paint that they found in the first half. When we saw Kendrick Nunn start scoring, we gave him the ball. We controlled the game and got to victory”.
Giannoulis Larentzakis with 13 points was the top scorer of the hosts who had five more players scoring 11 points, however they made just 22/35 free throws on a very tense and ugly game.
As coach Giorgos Bartzokas admitted: “We had a lot of pressure to finish the game, it was reflected in so many missed shots and missed free throws. It was reflected in the missed shots. A lot of pressure, and we had to play better defensively. We will be ready for Friday’s game”.
The tension was obvious even between players when they left the court for the locker rooms. There’s no love lost even between the players of the two teams.
Season is over in France, Turkey, Spain…
Meanwhile, in Greece, we have Game 5 and this is the end of Game 4pic.twitter.com/J0pKCsir8v
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) June 12, 2024