The regular season’s top scorer and MVP endured a pair of torrid nights against the Turkish outfit
Aggressive Efes defense knocked Kendrick Nunn off his stride
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Reigning Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champs Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens lost home-court advantage against Anadolu Efes Istanbul after a 76-79 defeat in Game 2 levelled their quarterfinal playoff series ahead of next week’s doubleheader in the Turkish capital.
Having come from behind to grind out an 87-83 win in Game 1 in front of a raucous home crowd in Athens, Panathinaikos spilled a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter on Thursday night as Efes roared back to head home with a share of the spoils.
The visiting team’s pack leader Shane Larkin shined in Game 2, particularly in the fourth quarter when he sank eight of his game-high 20 points in the home straight to silence the Greens in a jam-packed OAKA Arena, handing Efes the upper hand as the series moves to Istanbul.
In contrast, the regular season’s top scorer and MVP Kendrick Nunn had a torrid time as he struggled throughout the opening two games for Panathinaikos, shooting a combined 10 of 32 amid ironclad Efes defense on the former Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers guard.
Nunn, who led the Greek giant’s charge to last year’s EuroLeague title, was 4 of 16 from downtown over the two games as the visiting team’s guards gave him preciously little room to operate. In Game 1, big man Juancho Hernangomez stepped up with career highs of 20 points and 16 boards to lift Panathinaikos but there was no cavalry coming to the rescue in Game 2, as Larkin and PJ Dozier did the fourth-quarter damage for rampant Efes.
Moreover, the absence of injured center Mathias Lessort exposed cracks in the paint as Panathinaikos struggled to contain Efes’s big men, with Vincent Poirier having a field day by racking up 16 points and 10 boards while Dan Oturu chipped in with 11 points and 4 rebounds.
“They gave Nunn no open shots as they played good defense on the pick & roll while we played terrible defense on Larkin in the fourth quarter and gave him shots that he made,” the home team’s head coach Ergin Ataman told the postgame press conference.
“Efes deserved to win for their relentless hustle and the experience they put on the court in the last quarter. Nunn is a player who can score at any point in time. In the opening three quarters, he had 6 assists in the wake of aggressive defense on him, but in the last quarter he had none. At the other end, their bigs scored 27 points,” added the Turkish tactician, who lifted back-to-back titles with Efes in 2021 and 2022 before steering Panathinaikos to glory last year.
Larkin, who was instrumental in both Efes conquests under Ataman, acknowledged that the Turkish outfit needed to keep its feet on the ground and stay focused ahead of a rip-roaring pair of matchups in Istanbul, with home-court advantage shifting to his team’s favor.
“It was a challenging game but we stuck together as a team and showed character,” Larkin said. “We know that basketball is a game of runs but we were able to make some plays in the third quarter that got us back into it. Then we made some big plays in the end but we can’t be too happy about the win because we need to win two more in order to achieve our goal.”
With a berth in the 2025 Final Four at stake, Efes head coach Luca Banchi was happy with the team’s reaction to the opening game’s loss as his men showed the mettle to bounce back in the face of adversity and force mighty Panathinaikos into submission.
“It was an impressive fourth quarter comeback as the players stepped up on defense while on offense we gradually found our flow and shot quality that we had expected from the beginning,” the Italian tactician elaborated. <br> “That’s easier said than done against such an aggressive and talent-packed team, though. I am proud of the way the team bounced back and we’ve achieved our primary goal of taking one win from the opening two games in Athens.”