The reigning champs trailed for 36 minutes and then turned the tide behind Mathias Lessort and Kendrick Nunn
Panathinaikos finds another gear to subdue Maccabi, 93-87
Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens returned to winning ways with a hard-fought home win over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, 93-87, having trailed for the lion’s share of the contest before hitting top gear in the last 4 minutes in Round 9 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Kendrick Nunn paced Panathinaikos with 21 points and 4 assists, while Mathias Lessort racked up 18 points and 6 boards. Cedi Osman and Juancho Hernangomez chipped in with 12 points each while Jerian Grant added 11 for the home team, which improved to 6-3 as it bounced back from last week’s Greek derby defeat at the hands of eternal rival Olympiacos Piraeus.
At the other end, Roman Sorkin led Maccabi with 21 points and 7 boards. Jaylen Hoard amassed 14 points and 5 rebounds and Rokas Jokubaitis netted 13 points for the visitors, who dropped to 3-6 after suffering their fifth defeat in the last six games.
Game Videos
Maccabi made a tremendous start and caused the Greens all sorts of problems inside, with Hoard doing the damage early on as the home team’s incensed head coach Ergin Ataman called a timeout inside the first minute of the game. Maccabi led 21-25 at the end of the first quarter as it sank 10 of 13 shots from two-point range while Panathinaikos committed 5 turnovers in the opening 10 minutes.
The hosts closed the gap to 27-29 early in the second but Maccabi held firm and engineered its biggest lead of the night, 33-45, late in the first half before Panathinaikos managed to trim its deficit to 37-47 at halftime. The misfiring hosts shot 2 of 10 from deep in the opening 20 minutes, having also committed 10 turnovers while losing the battle of the boards 11-15.
Panathinaikos came up with an 8-0 run early in the third to close in on the visiting team, 49-51, but stubborn Maccabi refused to relinquish its lead and headed into the final 10 minutes 60-63 ahead, although Lessort made some big plays in the pain to keep his team’s challenge alive.
Maccabi looked the more likely winner when a 0-8 run at the start of the fourth gave the visitors a 60-71 lead, but Panathinaikos once again dug deep into its vast resources to flip the script and come out on top. With Nunn and Lessort carrying the effort, Hernangomez and Osman joined the party with clutch shots from downtown as Panathinaikos nosed ahead for the first time, 79-76, with 4 minutes left on the clock.
Maccabi was still in it before a Lessort blitz basically sealed the contest, as the big man did it all in less than 60 seconds several plays later. He sank a pair of free throws to make it 86-82, then smothered a defensive rebound and finally dished out a pass to Hernangomez to nail a triple that effectively forced Maccabi into submission. The visitors battled hard to force a final twist but it never came as ice-cool free throw shooting in the final minute saw Panathinaikos grab a precious win in its bid to stay in the playoff picture.