Barça beat Panathinaikos with a scare after a stellar first quarter

A two-faced Barça, dazzling and overwhelming in a dreamy first quarter, and erratic and fearful in the other three, signed their 10th victory in the Euroleague, with a final scare, against Panathinaikos (74-68).

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
16 December 2022 Friday 15:32
18 Reads
Barça beat Panathinaikos with a scare after a stellar first quarter

A two-faced Barça, dazzling and overwhelming in a dreamy first quarter, and erratic and fearful in the other three, signed their 10th victory in the Euroleague, with a final scare, against Panathinaikos (74-68).

After enjoying a 17-point advantage (37-20), Jasikevicius's team, incomprehensibly, gradually thinned out and came to see the Athenians hot on their heels (69-68) with three minutes to go. Luckily, Jan Vesely (15 points) appeared disguising himself as Nikola Mirotic (14) to tie the blaugrana victory.

Barça was looking for the third consecutive victory after two setbacks (the previous one, at home, in the Euroleague with ASVEL), especially with the challenge of finding stability and regularity after a rollercoaster phase of the season, of ups and downs in performance, especially erratic in the last quarters. Panathinaikos was a favorable rival, ranked 11th (6-7), who had just lost in Valencia on Wednesday. And that's how Jasikevicius's team understood it, and they left very motivated.

Barça's first quarter was a veritable festival of triples: 8 out of 10 (80%) scored from 6.75, with special success from Mirotic (3/3) and Laprovittola (3/4), the best, with 9 points each. With the best aim of the year and a serious, forceful, solid defense, as he already showed on Wednesday in Monaco, the Blaugrana team soon distanced themselves from the Greeks and reached a maximum income of 16 points with the 28-12 that closed the period. with a triple from Laprovittola.

The Palau Blaugrana had fun, enjoying the spectacle of his people, who liked everything and liked each other. Like the mate that Satoransky nailed at 16-4, one of the plays of the day.

However, Panathinaikos improved in the second quarter, Barça lowered the piston, above all the effectiveness in the triples fell (only 1 of 5, by Higgins), and despite enjoying a maximum income of 17 (31- 14, 37-20), the Greeks won the set (15-18) and got close to 13 points. Although the feeling was that Barça was walking around 30.

“We did a terrific defensive job in the first quarter, but we lost the second quarter,” lamented Jasikevicius at halftime.

After returning from the locker room, Barça failed to show off its best level in the first quarter again. They conceded a 2-9 run with 6 points followed by Gudaitis and Panathinaikos managed to come within 8 points (47-39). After having left 17, Barça subscribed to the usual suffering. Jasikevicius insisted with his defensive rotations to gain intensity and managed to rebalance the fourth (19-21) thanks to Kalinic's success with 5 points in a row to close the third set with 9 (62-51).

An insufficient income to go quiet. Barça had to close the victory, but Panathinaikos threatened to give war by getting within 6 with Bacon's 64-58 with 6m41s to go. He would have to suffer, and even more so with Mantzoukas' three-pointer that made it 69-64 with 4m50s to go. The partial of the room was 7-13: eloquent.

After Jasikevicius' timeout with the rival at 5 points, Barça was terrified. Bacon and Ponitka put Panathinaikos just one away (69-68) in two actions of defensive weakness and confusion, and the Lithuanian coach had to stop the clock again and scold his team for them to react in the remaining 3m10s.

With water around his neck, Satoransky pulled a triple out of his hat to drive away the ghost of defeat (72-68) with 1m49s to go, and Vesely finished off the victory with 74-68 with 42 seconds to go. "We have made many mistakes, but the important thing is that we have struggled and suffered to win," said Vesely, the best at Barça with 15 points and a PIR of 22.

"We have to play better in the last minutes, it's very difficult to win two games in a row in the Euroleague with double shifts a week," Jasikevicius commented.

Barça: Satoransky (13), Laprovittola (9), Kalinic (10), Mirotic (14), Vesely (15); Da Silva (5), Higgins (3), Kuric (0), Jokubaitis (3), Nnaji (2), Tobey (0).

Panathinaikos: Wolters (4), G. Kalaitzakis (2), Williams (5), Bacon (19), Gudaitis (10); Ponitka (9), Lee (3), Papagiannis (13), P. Kalaitzakis (2), Mantzoukas (3).

Referees: Boltauzer, Latisevs, Bissang. Eliminated Tobey (28m28s, 59-48).

Quarters: 28-12, 15-18, 19-21, 12-17.