FC Barcelona fought back from a poor second quarter and narrowly fended off Panathinaikos OPAP Athens with an 82-85 road victory to extend its winning streak to eight games.
Nikola Mirotic paced Barcelona with 20 points to go with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. Nicolas Laprovittola tallied 18 points, Brandon Davies chipped in 12 points and Rokas Jokubaitis tallied 9 points and 6 assists. Barcelona started better in leading 10-18, but Panathinaikos found its form and opened a 13-point lead in the second quarter. Barcelona used its tough defense in the third quarter and took charge with a 2-14 run. The lead grew to 9 points with just more than a minute left but Barcelona made its fans sweat out the win for a 14-2 record. Panathinaikos has now lost eight of its last 10 games for a 4-12 record. Nemanja Nedovic came off the Panathinaikos bench and poured in 18 points while Ioannis Papapetrou scored 16 points, Howard Sant-Roos 13 and Georgios Papagiannis tallied 11 points and 8 rebounds.
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