Yesterday, November 30, within the framework of matchday 11 of the Euroleague, an exciting match took place between Serbian Partizan and Greek Panathinaikos. In it, Zeljko Obradovic’s team managed to overcome a -10 deficit, send the game to extra time and interrupt the rival’s streak of four consecutive victories before the roar of a packed stadium.
“Championship” covered what was happening from the stage – exclusive video materials can be found on our Telegram channel, as well as on the “Champion.Basket” channel. And in this article we tell you in more detail what this meeting was like.
Complete broadcasts of Euroleague matches are available on Okko.
Why the match was so important for Partizan fans:
The Partizan ultras organized a boycott. While the stands are empty, it’s on to basketball
At the beginning of the first quarter, Panathinaikos did what they do best: they forced the opponent to commit a foul. The representatives of the Greek team continually went to the penalty line, giving themselves a slight advantage, and several accurate hits by Marius Grigonis brought the advantage to “+6”. But reinforcements quickly arrived at the locals. In the opening ten minutes, both Alexa Avramovic and Kevin Panther returned to the court. The first recently suffered a broken nose, so he is now forced to play with a mask, and the second has been absent due to a knee injury since the fifth round. They helped Bruno Caboclo score his first points of the game and reduce the difference to a minimum: 20:21 at the end of the first half.
However, at the beginning of the second quarter the guests increased the difference on the scoreboard again. While Kendrick Nunn and Alexander Balcerovski scored points, Panathinaikos also eclipsed their opponents in rebounds. But Partizan’s attack did not look so certain and was quite unusual to see. After all, the black and whites occupy second place in the Euroleague in terms of goals per game, only surpassed by Real Madrid in this indicator. And although both teams struggled to make three-pointers, making just 5 of 21 attempts in the half, it was Zach Leday’s long-range shot that started the 11-0 run that got Partizan back into the game. Until that moment, the visitors looked much better in defense, but in the end they collapsed. 39:38 after the first half.
Alen Smailagic and James Nunnally quickly joined Leday, but at Panathinaikos Mathias Lessor suddenly started scoring points. Nunnally, by the way, is the favorite of Partizan fans. Recently, they even released a rap song in his honor that went viral on social media. His excerpt, which says: “James is Nunnally, I don’t know who LeBron is.” But Lessor, who now performs in Greece, also holds a special place in the hearts of Belgrade fans.
Mathias Lessor in the match against Partizan
Photo: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images
As soon as he showed up for warmups, the packed Stark Arena began carrying his name. Lessor spent the last season and a half with Partizan and gained real recognition among local fans: especially after entering the symbolic first quintet of the Euroleague, and also helped the team return to the playoffs of the tournament and win the trophy of the Adriatic League. . In January, Matías even attended the wedding of a Partizan fan who proposed to his beloved during a break from one of the matches.
The match against Panathinaikos was his first against his former team. After the match, the hosts gave the basketball player a small gift: a megaphone and a canvas with a photograph of Lessor himself, “charging” alongside the Partizan fans. He also had a warm conversation with his former teammates and coach, Zeljko Obradovic.
Let’s get back to the game. Despite Lessor’s efforts, the Belgrade team remained ahead for some time. Partizan scored confidently from the two-point line, Zach Leday was on fire. But Panathinaikos was not going to give up. There was a lot of physical competition on the court, a lot of contact, with both teams collecting rebounds under their basket. One minute before the end of the third period the score was tied, but at the last second a buzzer-beater from Konstantinos Mitoglou entered the home team’s hoop. 54:56, Panathinaikos takes the lead.
The eight unanswered points scored by the Greens in the first minutes of the fourth quarter helped the guests take a two-point lead. It took Partizan 176 seconds to successfully attack the ring; this was the price for the mistakes of Panther and Ognjen Jaramaz. Halfway through the segment, Panathinaikos was still maintaining “+10”, but then the hosts, with the crazy support of their home crowd, began to cut back. Several hits from Caboclo, a triple from PJ Dozier, a layup and another triple from Panther, and now the score is 76:78 with 79 seconds left in the game. Ergin Ataman said in the post-match press conference that his team played almost perfectly for 38 minutes, and in the last two he panicked and stopped defending. Then, thanks to running back Panther, the game went into overtime 34 seconds before the siren sounded.
Kevin Panther
Photo: Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images
The subsequent defeat of the Panther almost cost the black and white the victory, but “almost” does not count. In extra time, Obradovic’s team managed to quickly take the lead, while defending as if it were the Euroleague final and not the match on the eleventh day of the regular season. How much were at least two blocks of Caboclo worth? Stark Arena went crazy as Dozier and Panther led the offense. And although a partial score of 10:2 gave the hosts a comfortable advantage, Panathinaikos managed to get closer to the rival thanks to Nunn’s triple and two shots from the line. But the alley-oop between Panther and Ledeya 15 seconds before the siren sounded ended the game. The difference became “+5” and in the end Partizan won with 92:87.
Euroleague. Regular season. 11th round
November 30, 2023, Thursday. 22:45 Moscow time
Partisan
Belgrade, Serbia
Panathinaikos
Athens, Greece
Partizan: Vukcevic, Ledej, Avramovic, Panther, Smailagic, Yaramaz, Nunnally, Andjusic, Dozier, Ponitka, Kaminski, Caboclo
Panathinaikos: Kalaitsakis, Wildosa, Guy, Balcerovski, Sloukas, Grant, Nunn, Lessor, Antetokounmpo, Grigonis, Mitoglou, Mantzoukas
Leday became the most productive player of the game, scoring 23 points, five rebounds and two assists. Dozier had 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. Panther has 13 points and three assists, Caboclo has 12 points, five rebounds and two steals and blocks each.
Panathinaikos’ best player was Kendrick Nunn: he scored 19 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Lessor had 16 points, six rebounds and three blocks against his former team.
Now Partizan will have to play two more home games, which could change the course of the season for this team. The black and whites will host Monaco and Olimpia Milan in Belgrade. These matches will be played on December 5 and 7 respectively and will begin at 22:30 Moscow time.
Panathinaikos will visit Anadolu Efes on December 5. Starts at 20:30 Moscow time.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS