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With three foreigners and without a playmaker. With a thousand problems. But you never rule out Panathinaikos! Double dream in Khimki (78-76) and a message of respect from all!
Great victory: declaration of Panathinaikos. Giorgos Vovoras’ team traveled for … two days to Moscow and went to the Khimki headquarters without a major playmaker (except Pierre Jackson – Howard Sand Ross). With changes, differentiations and predictions in favor of the Russians.
What did the “greens” do? They closed their ears and played basketball. They dominated the rebounds and landed almost 40 garbage in Russia (39r.). They found protagonists, followed the plan of Giorgos Vovoras, took … a heart in defense and achieved a double that “whets the appetite” for the sequel. The champions had a Greek team out of necessity, but they saw their players … grow, with the power of the jersey.
Captain Ioannis Papapetrou was the absolute protagonist with 16 points and 8 rebounds, “speaking” in fact in the crucial, while Dinos Mitoglou followed him “touching” the double-double (12 points, 9 rebounds). Ben Bentil (11p), Marcus Foster (10p) and Lefteris Bohoridis (10p) were also in double digits for the winners. Thus, the “greens” made it 1-0 and go with psychology to the heights in the derby with Olympiakos (9/10).
On the opposite shore, Khimki lined up with equally dire absences (excluding Alexei Svend, Greg Monroe, Stefan Jovic and Eric McCollum) and “reversed” on his front row. However, he missed the easy scoring even on criticism … he threw spins and “choked” on the “green” defense. The losers’ first scorer was Devin Booker (15p.), But the one who almost did the damage was Zaichev (11p. With 5/6 shots and 5s.).
See here the match statistics.
