Panathinaikos Athens grinded out a hard-fought home win and improved to 4-4 by outlasting Zalgiris Kaunas 73-71 in a physical battle, as the Lithuanian team dropped to 3-5 with a fourth straight loss.
The host never led by more than 3 points in a tight and scrappy game that contained 18 lead changes, but Ergin Ataman’s men enjoyed the better of the decisive final moments to take the win.
Dinos Mitoglou led Panathinaikos with 19 points on 4-of-5 three-point shooting, along with 6 rebounds. Kostas Sloukas scored 16 points, Jerian Grant had 10 points and 5 assists, and Mathias Lessort scored 13 but committed 7 turnovers.
Zalgiris was paced by 15 points from Rolands Smits, with 12 of those coming in the fourth quarter. Arnas Butkevicius posted 10 points and 8 rebounds, but the visitors paid the price for committing 23 turnovers.
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