Panathinaikos ruined Olympiakos plans by upsetting its home-court advantage in the Greek League finals series by prevailing over the” reds” 69-67 at the Stadium of Peace and Friendship. Zeljko Obradovic’s team instrumented great character and passion and snatched the win from its opponent. The “Greens” were the better opponent on court throughout almost the entire encounter and got to the road-win in all fairness.
The “clover” started out on the right foot after tip-off playing aggressively and relying on feisty defense that trouble the hosts immensely when in attempts of driving to the basket. The guests mounted to a quick 6 point cushion (0-6 at 2’) main offensive executer of the moment big guy Nikola Pekovic, key distributor and organizer “Vspan” Spanoulis. The score board was finally broken in to for the “reds” thanks to Giannis Bourousis who sank back-to-back triples to jog his team to a come-back also aided in scoring by Josh Childress to offer the lead to Olympiakos for the first time at 5’ (7-6). Mike Batiste came off the bench to assist the visitors in frontcourt, teams going hand in hand all the way down to minute 10 and first period buzzer (16-16). The ensuing situation was not the most prosperous for the “clover” that experienced an offensive dry spell and lost its containing skills in backcourt, allowing Olympiakos to a mini outbreak that offered it a cozy 9 point gap in the score up to 15’ (29-20), forcing coach Obradovic to a time-out so as to cut his rivals’ momentum. Not a bad idea, as proven next since Panathinaikos returned to the encounter clearly more sufficient defensive wise whilst ever effective in offense with Pekovic loading his opponents’ basket in ample dosages. Thus the “Greens” crept up to a 2 point distance (29-27 at 17’) and although Olympiakos tried to answer the siege managing to bring the “clover” within 6 points (33-27, 18’) nevertheless Panathinaikos had more to bring to the game this time firing with Antonis Fotsis and Drew Nicholas from all the way down-town tying with the hosts 33-33 at 19’. The teams ended up headed to the locker rooms hosting Panathinaikos trailing by 4 (38-34), Giannis Bourousis being the main threat for the “Green” superlative in this final period of time.
Part 2 found Panathinaikos in the leading position since its defense became stifling and Vassilis Spanoulis set the tone for his teammates and offered precious solutions in offense, accompanied in the latter department by fellow mate Drew Nicholas. The “clover” seemed to be in control of the game, leading by 3 at 24’ (40-43) and by 5 at 27’ (45-50) after a sweet 3-point-play by Batman Fotsis. Panathinaikos missed out on a prize time opportunity to expand the gap even further at this point due to consecutive turnovers in frontcourt. At the other end Olympiakos came up short across from the “clover” trademark defense and it was only natural that Panathinaikos at 29’ was ahead by 8 (45-53) when Drew Nicholas nailed a basket-plus- free-shot, third quarter finally closing with a 4 point edge for the “Greens” (49-53). In the last 10 minutes Panathinaikos owed its supremacy solely to its defensive attributes since it was faced with many problems when it came to scoring. Let it be noted that up to 37’30 it had only 3 points added to its tally whilst at the same time Olympiakos led by Childress managed to gain the lead (58-56). It was the turning point for the “Greens” who mustered all their stamina and tenacity and thanks to the heart of the champion in them sealed the match from the charity stripe almost perfect, shooting 9 for 10 free shots (3D Diamantidis 6/6, Jasi 4/4, Batiste 1/2) ultimately stealing the victory under their arch rival’s nose who had its chance to prevail but squandered it’s last attempt when Papaloukas laid-out rather than lay-upped the equalizer that would have sent the game into overtime, score resting at 67-69.
Referees: Zavlanos, Schinas, Gontas
Quarters: 16-16, 38-34, 49-53, 67-69
Olympiakos (Giannakis): Papaloukas 5, Pelekanos, Childress 23, Vujcic, Teodosic, Bourousis 18, Halperin 5, Greer 2, Printezis 6, Erceg, Schortsanitis
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Kecman, Spanoulis 9 (4df, 4rbs, 3as), Perperoglou, Batiste 10 (5rbs), Fotsis 9 (8rbs), Nicholas 15 (3as, 3stls), Tsartsaris, Diamantidis 6 (4df, 3as, 2stls, 2blcks), Pekovic 16 (5df, 6rbs, 2blcks), Jasikevicius 4
