Panathinaikos obtained a very important victory on the night of November the 13th, victory that allows it to stare the top spot of its group right in the face. Beating Siena in a tremendously exciting game, offered it the privilege of gaining two very precious points on its road through Euroleague with the closing of game 4.
Panathinaikos enforced its game and its rhythm in the first 20 minutes of the encounter, although Siena always seemed to manage to cover the difference the “Greens” had accumulated. A difference that reached a double figure for the first time at 7’45’’ (19-9), only to peak to its highest price in the first quarter at 8’35’’, lead by +11, score at 22-11, shortly before the first buzzer wrung, score further flexing to 22-14. Pressure in defense, good ball circulation in offence where Zeljko Obrandovic watched his players feed the ball into the paint but also find breaches, gaps in the Italian’s defense, were the elements that paid off for Panathinaikos.
Siena crept up to 3 points (22-19, 11’20’’), playing the three-point card in the game. Panathinaikos reacted with a 9-0 streak (31-19, 12’50’’), but the Italians had not yet decided to throw in the towel. They had their solution and that was triples, thus they summed up the first half a… triple away from their opponent (45-42), enjoying 9/18 shots beyond the arc, when at the same time Panathinaikos had the scarce 1/6. But it was the only category they held the superlative in. Stats showed 65%-45% in two pointers, 80%-71% in free throws, 22-10 rebounds, 6-2 steals, 10-7 assists (4 Spanoulis, 3 Jasikevicius) in favor of the Greek team. Panathinaikos’ sore spot was its opponents three’s, especially those of Domercant (4/4) and Laurinovic (3/3), player who actually even got a rarely viewed 4-point-play at the end of the third quarter, trimming the gap down to two (41-39, 18’).
Fotsis time
Yet another triphecta, yet again from a tall guy, this time culprit being Shaun Stonerook, gave Siena the opportunity to reach the score to the meekest possible difference (46-45, 23’10’’), to have Benjamin Eze provide the lead a few moments later (46-47, 23’30’’) and the Italians get all the way up to a +5 margin away from their rivals (46-51, 25’), being dominant for the first time in the game in rebounding. A “nothing but net” three pointer by Vassilis Spanoulis helped so as to not leave the Italians resist unanswered (49-51, 25’35’’), the game got more up tempo and Drew Nicholas was thrown into battle, first time in the encounter, by coach Obradovic. Antonis Fotsis was the player that measured things up in the game for the “Greens”, making the score board read 53-53 (28’10’’), by unleashing a long shot from down town and Drew Nicholas followed his playmate’s example almost at crunch time in the third quarter, giving the reigns once more to Panathinaikos (56-55, 30’).
Fotsis presence proved to be the key for Panathinaikos’ come-back, alongside Spanoulis organizational talents primarily and the latter’s helping wings in the perimeter, Kecman – Nicholas. The lead soared to +10 once again with a charity shot by Spanoulis (65-55, 32’10’’). But the fat lady had not yet sung, something that Siena made only too clear on the court, mainly thanks to Stonerook, who did not refuse to take the extra step and go high towards the arc to enforce pressure, in which fashion Siena cruised to a sweet 10-0 sweep (65-65, 34’40’’). Diamantidis put an end to Siena’s siege with a triple, Stonerook answered once more, only to hear what Jasikevicius had to say on the matter as he made the score 70-68 (36’20’’) and 71-68 (37’).
