Whenever Panathinaikos Athens needed someone to stand up and be counted during Friday’s 67-81 win at Zalgiris Kaunas, Derrick Williams answered the call.
The all-action forward scored the vast majority of his 26 points in tightly packed bunches, starting at the very beginning of the game, when he netted his team’s first 4 points.
More significant contributions came in the second half. First, he scored the first 8 points of the second half for Panathinaikos, moving past his personal milestone of 1,500 career points in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in the process. Then, after a 12-0 run for Zalgiris changed the complexion of the game, Williams returned to repeat the trick by scoring his team’s final 6 points of the period, including a brutal fastbreak slam that temporarily sucked the air out of the Zalgiris fans.
Still, that wasn’t enough to win the game as the home team kept persisting, making it 61-66 with 6 minutes remaining. Yet, again Williams appeared to make sure his team didn’t let the victory slip away, adding his final 5 points to restore a double-digit margin which settled the outcome for good. That final spurt underlined his willingness to accept a leadership role for an on-the-rise Panathinaikos side.
