Kaminsky inspired Partizan's late coup

Partizan center Frank Kaminsky saved his best for the last of his team's thrilling victory against Fenerbahce, swinging the momentum in crunch time.

Frank Kaminsky did not hit the ground running at Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade when he joined the Serbian team from the Houston Rockets during the off-season.

The 30-year-old center from Illinois, who had spent eight years in the NBA after being selected by the Charlotte Hornets in 2015 as the ninth overall draft pick in 2015, struggled to adapt to the European game in his first few outings in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

He had a huge pair of shoes to fill after the departure of Mathias Lessort, who joined Panathinaikos Athens after a superb season at Partizan, narrowly missing out on the 2023 Final Four in Kaunas.

Thursday night's home game against Fenerbahce seemed to be producing another tough night for Kaminsky, who was locked in a titanic personal battle with the Turkish side's big man, Jonathan Motley, one of EuroLeague's most physically dominant centers.

Then, in the fourth quarter of the epic contest, Kaminsky just let himself go. After forcing Motley's fifth and final foul with 5:36 to play, Kaminsky promptly completed a 15-point comeback with a pair of perfect free throws at 75-75. He then scored his team's next 6 points to keep Partizan close enough in the final minute to seize victory from the jaws of defeat.

All told, Kaminsky scored 11 of his 15 points in the final 10 minutes, but he almost went from hero to zero in the final few seconds. With Partizan leading 85-84, an inbound pass caught him wrong-footed with the basket at his mercy and the ball slipped through his fingers. The visitors had 5 seconds left to force a final twist. In the end, Kaminsky and some 20,000 Partizan home fans were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief after Tyler Dorsey's last-gasp shot on the buzzer clanked off the iron.

Kaminsky credited the energy that those fans supplied for the team's second-half improvement.

"For the way we played in the first half and the way we played in the second half, we were like two completely different teams," Kaminsky said coming off the floor.

"In the second half, we made all the plays we needed to make and we had a lot more energy. When you are at home in front of these fans, you feed off the energy of the crowd. We have a lot of guys on this team who can step up in big moments, and that was the story of the game tonight."

Power forward Alen Smailagic also made some clutch shots down the stretch and he singled out second-to-none team spirit as a key ingredient in Partizan's fightback.

"The whole game was tough because Fenerbahce is a really good team, they have great players and a great coach," he said. "But we are a brotherhood with a lot of fight in us, and the important thing is that we stayed together."