Panathinaikos is counting backwards for game 5 and final playoffs matchup with Barcelona. The team is in Spain. The technical staff and the players will have not only the BC’s president, Dimitris Giannakopoulos with them but also 100 clover friends. The clash’s tip-off is scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday, April 25) at 22.00 and the game which provides a Euroleague Final Four ticket, will be broadcasted by NovaSports2 and Novasports2HD.
The Panathinaikos Head Coach, Argyris Pedoulakis, characterized tomorrow’s battle a final: “Every game is different. This is the mindset we have been going by from the beginning of the season and behind it we shall continue to proceed. The pressure weighs on Barcelona more at the moment. On the other hand it does have home court advantage. If before the series we had said that we would get it to 2-2 everyone would have been pleased. We are a new team. Panathinaikos is being rebuilt something which in today’s society is a mighty hard accomplishment. We try through the less possible means, but with technical know-how, love and hard work for all the goes without saying. You must work hard for the exact thing that goes without saying”.
Roko Leni Ukic sent the message even through the T-shirt his was wearing upon the team’s departure. “Basketball never stops”… For the Croatian guard the game is significant, as significant were the days leading up to it: “Our goal is to win. It is impossible to speak of anything else at this point. We performed better in two games; Barcelona did better in the other two. These last few days we got a chance to rest a bit, physically but mainly mentally, so as to be prepared. We want to play a good game. We detected the mistakes we committed, especially during game 4 and we are obliged not to repeat them”.
Jonas Maciulis made comments similar to his teammate: “We had days to prepare for game 5, an extremely positive situation. We are prepared, our coaches have spoken to us and have referred to zone defense, appealing to which we had issues. Now it is up to us to perform all our coaches have been instructing us these last few days. Pressure does exist naturally. It is our job to feel the pressure; especially now that it is a game able to advance you to a Euroleague Final Four. Pressure is part of the game for any high aiming athlete”.
History
Panathinaikos and Barcelona have met up quite a few times. The inauguration matchups were back in the 1981-82 season, the Catalans to prevail in both encounters given. Since then both teams have come a long way and the standings are somewhat balanced out, Barcelona however to have first say (15-12).
Numbers
Jonas Maciulis remains at the Euroleague playoffs finale, the only Panathinaikos player to have started in all games given this season. Argyris Pedoulakis has used 14 different initial 5’ overall.
Dimitris Diamantidis has intercepted the ball at least once in his 8 last games and in 13 out of 14 of his last games.
All Kostas Tsartsaris needs in his Euroleague career to reach 100 triples is to knock-down one.
Mike Bramos is Panathinaikos’ leading scorer for the playoffs, 11.8 per game. He has also made at least one three-pointer in his 8 last games.
Stephane Lasme needs to whack the ball 5 more times in order to reach 10th place on the Euroleague all-time list of blockers. D’or Fischer is now at 10th place. Lasme is 12th with 107 blocked shots and Darius Lavrinovic is one spot higher with his respective 109.
Relations
Many players on both teams have met up in the past. Sarunas Jasikevicius with Dimitris Diamantidis and Kostas Tsartsaris in Panathinaikos, James Gist with Nate Jawai in Partizan, Mike Bramos and J.C. Wallace in Gran Canaria, Roko Leni Ukic with Erazem Lorbek in Lottomatica Roma.
