The Real Madrid He added his sixth consecutive defeat as a visitor in the Euroleague basketball, falling to the Panathinaikos by 87-86; with a Georgios Papagiannis superlative, author of 18 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks and a PIR of 30.
The Greek team, without qualifying pressure, played one of the best games of the season against a Real Madrid team that plunged back into their particular offensive hell in the first quarter and then, despite winning the next three quarters, failed to achieve victory.
Real Madrid started the game badly. He did not find points easily in attack and began to lose his mind. And he also found the best version of Nemanja Nedovic from the triple and Georgios Papagiannis under the hoops.
The 22-11 with which the first quarter ended almost seems short for the merits of both teams.
In the second act followed the domain of Papagiannis. Neither Tavares nor Vincent Poirier managed to neutralize it. Madrid redoubled its defensive efforts, put more energy and strength into its actions, but did not achieve fluidity in its attacking actions.
The Pablo Laso’s continuous rotations did not have the desired effect and no player appeared who took the decisive step to drag his teammates to the side of confidence, success and effectiveness.
Nedovic with 11 points and a PIR of 15 and, above all, Papagiannis with 10 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks and a PIR of 21 were a real toothache for a clueless Real Madrid that despite everything won the fourth, 19-21 and went into the break 8 points behind, 41-32.
After the restart, Madrid continued without finding solutions to their problems and continued to be entangled in the defense of Panathinaikos with what the Greek advantage stabilized around 10 points51-39 (m.24).
The good moments of Trey Thompkins, the ‘glue’ of Rudy Fernández in the game and the fight of Tavares allowed Madrid to reduce differences, 56-51 (m.29), close the quarter with 59-54, after a triple by Llull and another of Ioannis Papapetrou in the limit of time.
The last act began with an exchange of baskets, 63-58 (m.32), but the return of Papagiannis to the track raised the Helena income again, 69-60 (m.33.15), although a triple by Rudy once again underpinned the Madrid option.
Panathinaikos came out on top before Real Madrid’s doubts, 73-63 (m.35) and Daryl Macon joined the Greek party, 76-63, in the next move.
Madrid got into the zone, Llull, Thomas Heurtel, two, and Gabriel Deck hit from the triple and with 2 minutes remaining they regained ground, 80-75.
Howard Sant-Ross with a triple solved the situation and Madrid ran out of time to find the way out of hell, 87-86. With this result and waiting for others and the last day, Madrid sees second place in the standings in danger.
Datasheet:
87 – Panathinaikos (22 + 19 + 18 + 28): Nedovic (13), Sant-Ross (9), Papapetrou (15), Evans (13) y Papagiannis (18) -cinco initial-, Manzoukas (3), Macon (9), Kavvadas (4) y Kaselakis (3) .
86-Real Madrid (11+21+22+32): Williams-Goss, Talker (2), Deck (12), Yabusele y Tavares (12) -cinco inicial-, Heurtel (18), Rudy Fernández (9), Poirier (6), Llull (15), Thompkins (8) y Taylor (4).
Referees: Matej Boltauzer (ESL), Olegs Latisev (LET) and Emin Mogulkoc (TUR). Without eliminated.
Incidents: Match corresponding to the thirty-third day of the regular phase of the Euroleague basketball played at the OAKA pavilion in Athens before some 3,000 spectators.
