With a 100 point win, Panathinaikos bid farewell to his Jubilee anniversary. It overcame PAOK at a home game by 107-97.
The guests stepped on the floor in better form enforcing a zone defense to be able to disallow drives and mid-range shots and to try to take as much control over rebounding as possible, something which it did not achieve though (9-to-3i n the first quarter, 18-to-8 at half time). Panathinaikos found its way to the basket struggling , having as sole scorers until minute 4 in the game Vassilis Spanoulis who connected on two triples plus Diamantidis who contributed a two-pointer, score at 8-11. The “Greens” also committed quite a few turnovers (6 in the first quarter and 3 more in the second).
Coach Kalafatakis enjoyed his players getting away even further reaching all the way up to a +8 margin (25-33, 10’20’’) but the response from the opponent camp was put in immediately. A 12-to-2 run up to 37-35 (12’40’’) gave the game’s reigns to the hosting team and Zeljko Obradovic started to see his boys coordinate themselves in defense thus fleeing even further ahead and finding more logical solutions in offense behind baskets mainly from Jasikevicius and Pekovic. Panathinaikos got the game’s groove and reached to lead even by 8 points (48-40 at 16’ and 53-45 at 18’40’’) shortly before the first part ended, sealed by a buzzer-beater long distance guarded three-pointer unleashed by Gregory, to formulate the score at 56-52.
Panathinaikos ultimately had the first say in the game and Nikos Hatzivrettas’ three jogged the difference to an 18 point advantage (81-63, 25’30’’). Obradovic set sail for a few experiments, trying out formulas featuring 4 guards on court and only tall body Mike Batiste, a 5’s lay-out he alternated many times making many substitutions. The third quarter ended 88-72 and the forth one was procedure, score resting at 107-97 in favor of the “three-leaf-clover-team”.
Referees: Schinas-Koromilas-Psarianos
Quarters: 25-30, 56-52, 88-72, 107-97
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman 2, Spanoulis 12, Perperoglou, Batiste 8, Fotsis 8, Hatzivrettas 5, Nicholas 15, Tsartsaris, Diamantidis 12, Pekovic 14, Sakota 9, Jasikevicius 22 (4as)
PAOK (Kalafatakis): Kafkis 5, Demertzis, Vasiliadis 14, Kyritsis 6, Tsiaras 6, Diarra 12, Mulaomerovic 16, Gregory 24, Simtsak 2, Tomasevic 12
Applauds for Tomacevic
Dejan Tomasevic, a player that has worn the green jersey being on the team on the triple-crown 2007 roster, played against his old team for the first time since he left and was immensely applauded by the crowd at the beginning of the encounter but also when his was thrown into battle from coach Kalafatakis , returning the ovation to the cheering fans. An ovation that peaked at the end of the game, when the crowd started to cheer-on his name standing, in an attempt to offer recognition for all he has offered to their team.
