Panathinaikos suffered a home defeat by Real Madrid 76-67 for day 8 in the Euroleague. The greens competed deprived of Dimitris Diamantidis’s services (who although did come to the stadium on the injuries report list-having pulled an inner thigh muscle- nevertheless was advised by the medical team to head back home since he introduced a sudden fever).
Real got on top from the start, taking better advantage of all it was offered on the floor, getting to spot the open guy in great form. It flew ahead to an early 5’10’’ 10 point cushion (2-12). The combination of a technical foul whistled on the clover bench and an unsportsmanlike one decided to be “charged” to Vassilis Spanoulis by the referees, jogged the Spaniards to an even further get-away (6-22, 8’10’’), forcing Panathinaikos to have to cover quite a gap from quite early in the clash, committed fouls standings at this time 6-2 clover in over gear. First quarter ended at 8-22 as the margin expanded even further to +16 game recommencing (8-25, 10’25’’). The greens gained on their guests to an 11 point shadow (18-29, 14’20’’), capitalizing on a three-point-play by Spanoulis, but Novica Velickovic answered back with 4 points of his own to 18-33 (15’40’’), intermission landing at 27-39.
Panathinaikos tried to improve things on court, reentered the matchup aggressively and Pekovic dunking plus Spanoulis long haul scoring cut the trail (32-39, 22’10’’), however Real went for a 7-0 run next to push the hosts back to 32-46 (24’). It was a scenario replayed heading towards third quarter conclusion, the clover creeping up to a 10 point distance (40-50, 26’30’’) and the Spanish breaking away once more (45-63, 29’20’’), cruising ahead even further to +21 (45-66, 31’). Opponents kept their distances up to 34’ (49-70), a 12-0 kept the Panathinaikos’s fire burning (61-70, 37’), but curtains fell at 67-76. The greens might have lost in bounds but out of bounds and essentially in the fans stands the atmosphere was ideal, as the team was sent off in a warm round of applauds, to close an amazing team support session.
Referees: Jungerbrand (FIN), Rocha (POR), Viator(FRA)
Quarters: 8-22, 27-39, 45-63, 67-76
Panathinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic 2, Spanoulis 6, Perperoglou 8, Batiste 10, Fotsis 9, Nicholas 12, Tsartsaris, Pekovic 10, Calathes 10,
Real Madrid (Messina): Prigioni 11, Hansen, Lavrinovic 8, Reyes 4, Van Den Spiegel 2, KAukenas 12, Velickovic 11, Garbajosa 13, Vidal, Bullock 15
*Dimitris Diamantidis (injury to the inner thigh) and Yorgos Bogris were not on the official roster.
