Panathinaikos was unable to get to the victory it longed for and was downed 83-71 by Barcelona at the Palau Blau Grana for day 3 in the Euroleague Top16.
A distant recollection of its good self and lacking clarity in thinking at many moments of the clash, Panathinaikos trailed from tip-off. After the initial 2-2, minute 1 score, it chased its rival, which had great pace, was irritatingly precise at shooting from beyond the arc (5 for 6 in fist quarter and 7 for 17, 41% at the end of the game), getting many times to make great use of its big men, either off great feeding of the ball from frontcourt players or off picked up boards. At 2’10’’ the score became 6-5, home-team proceeding on to gradually stepping away from its guest. A 7-0 run flexed the score to 12-5 (5’), the greens slashed their trail down to 2 (13-11, 6’30’’) but the Catalans were ready to counteract again and manage to get up by double digits at 7’40’’ by 10 (21-11), upping the ante to +13 (29-16, 9’40’’). Panathinaikos input a mini come back in the last few minutes of the first half, muscling itself to a half-time 9 point trail that allowed some optimism for the pending duration of the matchup (47-38, 20’).
However, return to the floor was all Barcelona game. It got to the basket first and cruised all the way up to +17 (62-45, 26’20’’). At third quarter conclusion the referees charged a technical on coach Obradovic, a fact that jogged Barcelona to +20 (74-54, 31’45’’). For the home-team to be able to amount to all this had marked a new record in points scored in a single quarter after first quarter 29 and half time 47, whilst Roger Grimau emerged as the hosts’ “hero”, finding the way to the bucket in a home-court that enforced asphyxiating pressure on the referees. Panathinaikos picked up the slack to 14 (76-62, 34’40’’), Barcelona found a way to step away from the clover (81-64, 36’30’’) but the greens cut their disadvantage even further (81-71, 37’50’’). It was the last out-break before final score 83-71 in the encounter.
Referees: Cerebuch (ITA), Cicoria (ITA), Chambon (FRA)
Quarters: 29-18, 47-38, 68-54, 83-71
Barcelonas(Pascual): Basile 3, Rubio 9, Lakovic, Navarro 11, Vazquez 2, NDong16, Morris 6, Sada, Lorbek 14, Mickeal 5, Grimau 17
Panthinaikos (Obradovic): Tepic, Spanoulis 10, Perperoglou 5, Batiste 19, Fotsis 1, Haislip 6, Nicholas 11, Diamantidis 8, Pekovic 11, Calathes
