Euroleague Basketball's 'Super Cup' went the way of upstart Paris
History made in Paris with win over Panathinaikos
Chalk one up for the BKT EuroCup! In Tuesday's showdown between the champions of the top two pan-European basketball competitions, Paris Basketball led for the entirety of the last three quarters in recording an 84-80 victory over Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens.
While the battle of the champions was a nice side story, the real headline was that Paris won in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague for the first time and took out a major title contender to do so. The Parisians were in the mix in their first two games, but after narrow losses against Crvena Zvezda Merdianbet Belgrade and EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, coach Tiago Splitter's men were clear underdogs – even at home – against the battle-tested Greens.
So how did Paris do it? It was a combination of playing with confidence and motivation, a ragged pace and tough and physical defense. And, of course, holding on at the end.
"We are confident in our game," point guard TJ Shorts, who had 16 points and 7 assists on what was his 27th birthday, said. "We felt like we let two games get almost slipped away from us and we felt like we were right there on the hump to capture our first win and for us to do it against the reigning champs – that’s an incredible roster over there. We have a lot of respect for them.
"We will take this feeling that we have, the way we played, the cohesion that we had as a team and we will continue it."
Paris did not win the game because of great execution. The home side shot poorly from deep (24.1%) and from the foul line (68%), the latter of which nearly cost it dearly when Panathinaikos rallied late. The visitors outrebounded Paris 38-42 and had more second-chance points (11-14).
But they did other things to make life hard on the Greens.
"We played at the pace we wanted and the pace they didn’t want," Coach Splitter explained. "If we played at their pace, we would probably have lost."
He also credited the team effort on defense, which Splitter called "big time".
That defense collected 9 steals and forced 15 turnovers, which were cashed in for 21 points.
As a former player, Splitter understood what this game meant to his players: "This is the type of game where you don’t need much motivation. Playing against the champion of Europe. I didn’t have to say anything. They had the knives in between their teeth ready for a fight and that’s what happened tonight."
Before leaving the podium at the post-game press conference, Splitter summed up what the win means for Paris.
"It’s a huge game for this club, this young club. I told them that I think Panathinaikos is 106 years old, you’re six years old. You're babies," he said. "It's huge. I am proud of this club, this team, the players, the staff. Everybody who worked to be here and they gave me this opportunity to be here in this seat and lead this team."
Most importantly, the Paris players now know that when they play their fast-paced, rugged brand of basketball with confidence – especially at home – they can stand up to any EuroLeague team... even the reigning champs.