In the mites of a festive atmosphere and in view of 14,000 cheering fans Panathinaikos took its first positive step in the Greek League play-offs. In its home court it overcame the obstacle of Aris by 84-80, paying an ode to its triumphant victory in Berlin, bringing the 5th European cup on court at the finale of the encounter and rising it to the fans in its rightful owner’s home.
Panathinaikos did not exactly start out warmly to head to battle and gave Aris the opportunity to take the lead mostly behind efforts from Keydren Clark. The guest’s point guard shot his way to a perfect 5-out of-5 threes, even when a “Green” guy was hovering over him and paced his team to hang on to the game’s reigns. Aris got to lead even by 7 (5-12, 3’55’’). Panathinaikos muscled its way to tie praise to a triple sunk by Antonis Fotsis (26-26, 11’25’’), reran the play when Diamantidis dialed long distance to balance things out again (33-33, 14’40’’) leading on to a 10-0 streak to 40-33 (18’30’’) on a superb connection between Spanoulis’ fifth assist in the match and Mike Batiste’s flushing abilities around the rim. Teams headed to the locker rooms, score at 40-37, Clark having ruined his perfect stats knocking out 3-for-3 in his last 3 attempts from beyond the arc.
Aris returned to the floor and to the game, got even and flew ahead jogged by Wright (45-47, 24’45’’) only to be answered to by Drew Nicholas who fired a trifecta to 48-47 at 25’10’’. The conversation though had not ended and so Nelson currently took the floor to stop and pop on behalf of his team’s bill to make the score 48-52 at 26’ conveying the sentiment that it was Aris in control on court during this period of the encounter. Third period concluded at 64-64 Nicholas dropping back to back triples and Diamantidis tipping in the 30 minute buzzer bucket.
Tsartsaris offered the leading point from the charity spot to make it 65-64 (30’40’’) but the visitors had not yet decided to throw in the white towel. Spanoulis steps up and not only scores on the fast break driving and crossing over his opponent to the lay-up, but also snatching an unsportsmanlike foul and making the free shot that was awarded, score flexing to 70-68. In the next possession Antonis Fotsis unleashed a gutsy three-pointer giving a huge breather to the “clover” at 35’15’’ (73-68). The gap expanded to 7 points when Pekovic buried 2 free shots (77-70, 36’20’’) and the “Greens” battled their way to +9 (81-72, 37’30’’) choosing wisely at both sides of the court. It was an uphill road down the stretch to the buzzer when the score board red in favor of Panathinaikos 84-80 marking 1-0 in the series of the play-off semi-finals. Next meeting is set for Wednesday at the Alexandrio arena.
Referees: Gontas – Anastopoulos – Bitis
Quarters: 21-25, 40-37, 64-64, 84-80
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Spanoulis (7as), Perperoglou 2, Batiste 10, Fotsis 7 (7rbs), Hatzivrettas, Nicholas 11, Tsartsaris 12, Diamantidis 12 (5as), Pekovic 19 (7/7 fs, 6/6 tp), Jasikevicius 4
Aris (Mazzon): Clark 22, Wright 14, Betts 6, Nelson 23, Argyropoulos, Iliadis, Gavel, Skordilis, Agadakos, Barlos 12, Tsaldaris 3
Warm welcome for champions
It only took a few minutes for the Panathinaikos fans to come close to tears and get chills up their spine, to feel a part of the “clover’s” legend. Before tip-off surprises and anything that could bring to mind any one of the 5 European cups the Greens have conquered either in Paris, Thessaloniki, Bologna, and Athens or recently in Berlin literary stole the show.
Panathinaikos stepped on court at 17:30h to be sent off by the fans that were already in place and had already welcomed warmly ever single player that had set foot on the floor for war-up, individually; something that also occurred when Dimitris Itoudis appeared and all the more when Zeljko Obradovic entered the arena, who, as per usual was the last to come to the party.
Most of the minutes leading towards the beginning of the game where nevertheless dedicated to him. A video ran on the arena’s wide screen television ending with the inscription “Hvala ti”. Thank you! It was merely the beginning of a line of videos that were accompanied by the live fans who chimed in unison “ole” as they watched the cup being razed in the O2 World Arena held by Dimitris Diamantidis and Fragiskos Alvertis. Moments before the game begun the great banner for the 5th European trophy unraveled, slowly revealing the architect of 4-out of-5 European cups for Panathinaikos, Zeljko Obradovic celebrating with the trophy he won in Berlin. It was succeeded by the banner for title number 5 on the roof of OAKA next to so many “clover” triumphs. Last but not least, the new team logo with 5 stars was introduced to the crowd.
