The seventh derby of the ages in the 2023/24 season, was the one with the lowest stakes of those that preceded and of those that will follow. And yet, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos fought a great battle on Monday night (15/4) at OAKA, for the third matchday of the TOP-6 of the Stoiximan Basket League, with the greens taking the victory (77-71) and making the 3/3 against Piraeus in this year’s championship.
Panathinaikos rose to 23-1 (11-1 at home and 12-0 away), which now has three matches for the TOP-6 final. Kendrick Nunn and Dinos Mitoglou were the leaders, with Juancho Hernangometh and Matias Lessor following on the night Gerian Grant was left out of the starting lineup to be ready for the EuroLeague playoffs and games against Maccabi Tel Aviv or Valencia.
Olympiacos fell to 22-3 (12-1 at home and 10-2 away), which goes to the playoffs knowing that it will have the home advantage in its possible matchup with Panathinaikos in the finals. Isaiah Kanan was a huge threat for the home side, Nigel Williams-Goss put in another very good performance, Walkup and Fal had good spells, but the Piraeus side bent on the details and are already thinking about the Barcelona series.
Panathinaikos closed the first period with eight assists for one mistake, Olympiacos closed it with 2/6 three-pointers who wasted four possessions and ended the quarter with their starting five. At halftime, the points from the opponent’s mistakes (19-2) and the points from second chances (7-0) had helped the home team keep the lead, while the shots (1-12) had helped the Piraeus to stay alive to claim victory. 0-10 were the points from second chances in the third period, 0-2 the errors, Sluka’s three-pointer was what decided the match.
The race
Ataman opened the match with Slouka, Nan, Papapetrou, Hernangometh, Mitoglou, Bartzokas opened it with Walkap, Kanan, Papanikolaou, Peters, Fal. The two teams entered the match nervous, but quickly found a rhythm, with Sluka setting up for the greens, with Kanan writing 8-11 in the 6′ and Nan going ahead for a 7-0 run (15-11 at 8′). Kanan answered again, but the period belonged to the hosts who closed it at +7 (23-16) with a three-pointer by Grigonis.
Bartzokas changed 4/5 of his five at the start of the second, Ataman put Grigonis in Papapetrou’s place. Nan and Lessor pressed the gas even more for 34-17 at 14′, the crowd was excited and the field looked downhill for Olympiakos. And yet, the Piraeus kept their cool, went more into short-tall partnership basketball, saw Fal end phases with spikes and closed the half at -5 (38-33).
The image of the derby did not change at the start of the second half, with Panathinaikos holding a small lead and Olympiakos staying close. One with Kanan, one with Walkup, one with Peters. Fal with a hook made it 47-48 at 26′ and the more time passed, the more nerves grew. Spectators, viewers, players, coaches. 59-55 at the end of the third gave a thin air to the greens, but everyone “saw” a thriller until the end.
The score remained low, each attack looked like a small… match, Nan scored a three-pointer for 65-61, Mitoglou another for 68-63 in the 35th minute, but Olympiacos responded with 5-0 for a new tie and in 37′ there was a brief interruption due to a technical problem. A bad communication between Larentzakis and Fal led to a basket by Nan for 72-68, but again this +4 was not enough. Fall and McKissick reduced to a point, to be followed by airballs from Hernangometh and Walkup, in the 39th minute.
Slukas scored the crucial three-pointer for 75-71, the Panathinaikos defense came out and the greens got the result.
THE REFEREES: Pitsilkas, Tsimouris, Maglogiannis
THE DECADES: 23-16, 38-33, 59-55, 77-71
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