Panathinaikos rout Zalgiris Kaunas 94-59: Euroleague Recap
Defending Euroleague champions Panathinaikos suffered a two game losing spell in the middle of the season; however, they have really picked up the pace after that.
After beating Zalgiris Kaunas, who were playing at home, 94-59, the Greek champions are now still with a chance to finish at the top of Group, also featuring the mighty CSKA Moscow, who are on a red hot 8 game winning streak.
On Wednesday night, Panathinaikos made a shaky start and lagged behind Kaunas for most of the first period before a 4-0 phase in the last two minutes put them ahead by 1, 15-14.
In the next frame, the Greeks really put the heat on Kaunas. In the first seven minutes, Panathinaikos forced six turnovers from Kaunas and whatever shots the hosts did manage to fire were well contested and never went in. The
result was 24-1 spurt that completely turned the game in Panathinaikos favour.
By the end of the first half, Panathinaikos were leading by 41-19, which was pushed to 38-65 going into the final frame.
Kaunas needed to strike big time in the last ten minutes to at least salvage some respectability in the final score, but the Greeks kept on attacking the basket and outscored Kaunas 29-21 to romp to a 35 point win.
Even Panathinaikos guard Sarunas Jasikevicius was surprised by the lack of challenge from Zalgiris;
"Today we did expect not have such an easy win. We did not expect it and the fans probably did not expect it. And certainly Zalgiris hoped to play better. We see that Zalgiris is going through hard times, but they have a lot of
potential. I find it hard to speak. We were well prepared. Zalgiris had disadvantages and we used them."
Panathinaikos out rebounded Kaunas 37-32 and also spread the floor better with 21 assists as compared to 12 from the other side. They shot 2/3rd of their two point attempts and made almost 40 percent of their shots from
the long range.
Steven Smith and Nick Calathes were the top scorers for Panathinaikos with 17 points each while Mike Batiste finished the game with 13.
Sonny Weems, the Toronto Raptors forward, paced Zalgiris with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Marko Popovic also chipped in with 14 points and 3 assists.
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