Kendrick Nunn tied the score (87:87) in the last minute, but Lorenzo Brown hit a two-pointer off the board, and Kostas Slouk, who was weaving the home team’s attack, made a mistake and allowed Josh Nebo’s free throws to seal the visitors’ triumph.
Maccabi, which finished only in seventh position, defeated PAO for the third time in a row this year – in the regular season, it was stronger 86:81 (after extra time) and 90:75.
This time, the injury suffered by the leader Wade Baldwin at the beginning of the fourth quarter did not prevent the representatives of Israel from winning. After a successful breakthrough and scored points, the American grabbed his thigh, left the field and never returned to it.
Marius Grigonis brought 11 points (3/8 three-pointers, 2/2 penalties), 4 rebounds and 2 assists to the hosts in 24 minutes, but after a long break from the game, he lost everything.
Mathias Lessort scored 22 points, and K. Sloukas, who was angry after his mistake, finished with 12 points and 13 assists.
Bonzie Colson with 18, L. Brown with 16 and W. Baldwin with 15 points (7 rebounds) were the forgers of Maccabi’s victory.
The second match of the three-game winning streak will take place on Thursday, also in Athens.
“I think we didn’t deserve to win today: we missed ten penalties, we made a lot of mistakes, we were wrong even in the decisive moments. Everyone – the players, the staff, the club – today before the game we felt like we were at a festival, so we didn’t deserve to win.
Everything was against us. We lost the match and lost the home court advantage, which we fought hard for throughout the regular season,” PAO’s helmsman Ergin Ataman sighed at the press conference.
The specialist from Turkey did not keep silent about the work of arbitrators.
“Referees… Two absurd whistles for W. Baldwin shooting three-pointers. I complained that it was unfair to give such fines and the judge gave me a warning. Then I said that this is a warning to him, not to me. I received a technical. Maybe Euroleague will punish me now. But it’s fine, let them punish, because everyone saw those whistles,” he was openly indignant.
W. Baldwin, attacking from a distance, caught the opponents twice already in the first half – once he provoked three penalties when he felt the contact of K. Slouk during a quick attack and brushed the ball towards the basket from the middle of the field.
E. Atamans, who was disappointed with the performance of his pupils, was not inclined to attribute everything to tension or pressure.
“Pressure has no meaning here. After all, we played 34 rounds and each one was like a final – against “Barcelona”, “Anadolu Efes”, “Real”. So what more pressure can there be? It’s a zero factor,”
taught by a strategist.
Finally, Ergin made a resounding statement.
“I believe we are a much, much better team than Maccabi. The 0-1 result is not very important for us yet. We have to get back to our form and our game. What I want to say is that I promise all the people here that we will make it to the final four. This is my promise. And if we don’t do that, I won’t be in the Panathinaikos club next year”, – after saying these words, E. Ataman got up from the chair and left the conference hall.
We remind you that there was not much intrigue at the start of the next quarter-final: Real Madrid beat Vitoria Baskonia 90:74 at home.
On Wednesday evening, two other pairs will begin to clarify their relationship: Monaco will face Istanbul Fenerbahce, and Barcelona will face Olympiakos Piraeus.
The winners of the pairs will meet at the end of May on 24-26 days in the Euroleague Final Four tournament in Berlin.
Tags: Ataman criticized judges asked penalty promised final leave PAO
