Maccabi hands Panathinakos rare home loss to take 1-0 lead

Maccabi silenced a packed OAKA to gain the upper hand in the playoffs.

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

Lorenzo Brown scored the go-ahead bucket with 35 seconds left as Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Panathinaikos Athens 91 – 87 on the road after a comeback from down 12 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five EuroLeague playoff series. The Yellows handed their opponents their first EuroLeague loss at OAKA since early December.

Kostas Sloukas, Panathinaikos‘ top player until that moment, made a bad pass for his first turnover in the game and Josh Nebo sealed the win for Maccabi with a pair of free throws. Sloukas finished with a career-high 13 assists to go with his 12 points.

Brown completed the game with 16 points while Bonzie Colson had an outstanding finish, producing 13 out of his team-high 18 points in the last nine minutes. Wade Baldwin posted 15 points plus seven assists before exiting with eight minutes to play following an apparent hamstring injury he suffered during a layup.

“I just wanted to stick with it,” Colson said. “Just continue to play my game, continue to just to fight. It was a group effort. We talked about playing on both sides of the floor in the second half. Go back to what brought us to that point. We did that. Everybody stepped up and it’s 1-0.”

Mathias Lessort had 22 points on 9 – 11 shots (but also 4 – 11 free throws) plus six rebounds and Marius Grigonis scored 11 for a Panathinaikos team that led for the vast majority of the game and was even up 12, 56 – 44, early in the second half.

“We didn’t play well but, two shooting fouls on 3-point attempts. Ridiculous,” Panathinaikos coach Ergin Ataman said. “I don’t understand. It’s not fair for basketball to give six points to Wade Baldwin every time in that position. This is not fair but anyway. We didn’t play well. We had a chance to win the game, we missed a lot of shots and made the turnover in the last play. Maccabi won the game. It’s just 1-0. We will win the series.”

Maccabi made it a single-digit game in the third quarter. Colson tied the score at 73 and with the score 77 – 75, his team made a 0 – 6 run to move to a two-possession distance.

Josh Nebo dunked the ball to put Maccabi ahead 82 – 87 but a triple by Jerian Grant and a layup by Kendrick Nunn tied the score before Brown’s decisive basket.

“We were a bit confused defensively,” Maccabi coach Oded Kattash said. “We came back to our game plan and we hit some big shots. We had big possessions on offense. But everything was about our defense. We were down eight [at halftime] and we showed character again. I’m very proud and I hope Wade’s injury isn’t that bad.”