PAO facing Promitheas for the win
In Round 16 of A1 League, Promitheas will host Panathinaikos in the derby of the week in Greek basketball. It will be a match between the first place and the third one between two teams that shared the victories until now. In the League, Panathinaikos won the match 99-68, while in the Greek Cup, Promitheas made a huge surprise, winning the game 81-79.
Promitheas started the Eurocup Top-16 group with a defeat in Italy against Brescia, but in the last round, they took a comfortable win over Oldenburg, 81-70. The main strength of the team was their defensive effort, giving only 3 attempts from the free-throw line to their opponents with only 16 personal fouls made. In comparison, Promitheas had 21 attempts and made 18 of them. We can say that the difference was made here because it’s a 16 points difference from the foul-line. In the rebounds battle, they won 36-24 and on assists column, they complete 19. The main contributors were: Loukas Mavrokefalidis (19 points and 6 rebounds), Chris Babb (16 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists) and Dimitrios Agravanis (12 points and 7 rebounds).
After the win against Zalgiris, Panathinaikos won last 3 games in a row and their aim is to continue that run. They won against Bayern and then, they met the Lithuanian team in a very balanced game. The final score reflects what happened on the field, with the home team winning the game 96-94. Zalgiris had a 9 points lead after the first quarter, but Panathinaikos managed to overcome that difference and in the last quarter they had an 11 points lead, but their opponents fight until the last seconds, being very close to make a nice comeback. The main contributors for the Greek team were: Tyrese Rice (20 points and 6 assists), DeShaun Thomas (16 points and 8 rebounds) and Nick Calathes (14 points and 11 assists).
In order to have a chance to win here, Promitheas must continue to defend very well, because Panathinaikos have many more weapons to score. They took the win in the Cup, but it will be harder to get the W in this game because PAO’s roster is bigger and stronger and combined with a legendary Coach like Pitino, the chances are very small.
Photo: Euroleague
Bogdan Vasile Tirc