It was not a match that Panathinaikos had circled in his program. He didn’t want to beat Barcelona at the Palau Blaugrana, he went there without Nemanja Nedovic and Ioannis Papapetrou, he made a remarkable effort in the beginning but in the end he suffered a perfectly normal defeat (86-60) from an opponent who doesn’t just aiming for eighth place or the Final Four, but for conquering the EuroLeague, which Anadolu Efes lost last year.

The Greens, still hoping for their first away win of the year (5-6 in OAKA, 0-11 a), fell to 5-7 while they will now continue with a new trip in the 26th game against Villeurbanne in Lyon . At 19-5 the Catalans (12-1 a and 7-4 a) who had pluralism were effective and had some bad breaks. They played until they won the match, with Giorgos Papagiannis being their only problem in the forty minutes.

The MVP

It’s impossible to single out a player with such comfortable dominance, but in Barcelona tonight they can certainly smile for Dante Exum. At 26 and with a seven-year career in the NBA, the Aussie is trying to find his reincarnation and finally stay away from injury to help Barcelona and return to the world’s top flight. Against Panathinaikos, he scored 12 points (1/2 two points, 2/3 three points, 4/4 shots), racked up 6 rebounds, shared 2 assists and made a block, all in 18 minutes.

The weak link

Very bad night for Daryl Macon (12 points, 3/8 two points, 0/3 three points, 3 assists, 2 steals, 4 errors) and Howard Sand-Ross (4 points, 2/7 two points, 0/3 three points, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 errors), apart from George Papagiannis, there was generally no other Panathinaikos player who was even in a tolerable condition.

The stats that stood out

With 6/8 two points and 1/3 three points, Panathinaikos finished the first third having made seven errors, a very large number for games at this HQ. At 13, he completed the first twenty minutes in which he was 0/5, three points behind Bohoridis in the first period of the game. At the end of the night, the Greens had 1/12 threes, that is, they did not shoot from the first shot to the end of the game against the Catalans, who scored 57% with two points and 48% with three points and 100% on shots with 8/ 8th.

The race

Panathinaikos’ start of the match was not good. He had 1/1 two points and 1/1 three points, but also had five penalties in four minutes, finding himself early in the Chaser role (10-5). A knock on the knee forced Evans to go to the bench early, Papagiannis came on and did an incredible job, nailing time and time again to make it 17-15, which was the result of the first third. The mistakes had damaged the greens, but despite this their image in the executive part was good (6/8 two points, 1/3 three points).

After Exum had phases early in the second half and scored nine straight points, Barcelona quickly went to +9 (26-17) and +13 (30-17) with Yokubaitis and +14 (35-21) with a three-pointer from Kalathis from the top in the 17th minute. The Greens didn’t find cooperation in attack, they didn’t have any good shots, Hayes scored three consecutive threes to make it 41-21 and by half-time the situation had gone from difficult to…very difficult. Not because Panathinaikos had 1/6 threes that Bohoridis had in the first period of the game, but because they had 13 errors for just six assists.

With a 9-2 lead in two minutes early in the second half, Barcelona shot up to a 27 (54-27) lead, but Panathinaikos had a remarkable reaction. He reduced to 20 (58-38), he couldn’t celebrate for that, but he didn’t let the Catalans break them up and that was… something. Of course, the 63-42 of the third period didn’t leave any room for more optimism, although the result of the quarter (18-17) could be seen as a positive step as Dimitris’ team’s situation didn’t get out of hand with Prift.

The fourth third was purely procedural, Yassikevitsios pulled his important players onto the bench early on. Kalathis played 17:49, Mirotic scored 18:59, Davis 16:08 and a night that was expected to be easy really was for the Catalans.

THE REFEREES: Javor, Mogulkots, Travitsky

THE TEN MINUTES: 17-15, 45-25, 63-42, 86-60

BARCELONA (Jasikevicius): Davis 4 (2/7 shots, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals), Exum 12 (1/3 two points, 2/3 three points, 4/4 shots, 6 rebounds, 2 assists), Sunley 8 (4/5 two points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), Smith 5 (1), Hayes 14 (2/5 two points, 2/2 three points, 4/4 shots, 3 rebounds), Laprovitola 5 (1) , Kuric 5 (1 ), Yokumbaitis 9 (1 three points, 5 rebounds), Mirotic 9 (3/6 two points, 1/3 three points, 3 rebounds), Naji 4, Kalathis 7 (1 three points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals)

Panathinaikos (Priftis): Meikon 12 (3/8 two points, 0/3 three points, 6/6 shots, 3 assists, 4 errors), Papagiannis 18 (8/10 two points, 2/2 shots, 4 rebounds), Bohoridis 7 (1), Kavvadas 2, Kaselakis 3, White 9 (4/5 two points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists), Jovic 2, Evans 2, Mantzoukas 1, Sant-Ross 4 (2/7 two points, 0/3 3 points, 0/1 shot, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 errors)

Barcelona team stats: 24/42 two points, 10/21 three points, 8/8 shots, 36 rebounds (27 defensive – 9 offensive), 19 assists, 8 steals, 3 blocks, 12 errors

Panathinaikos team statistics: 23/43 two points, 1/12 three points, 11/14 shots, 26 rebounds (20 defensive – 6 offensive), 12 assists, 7 steals, 17 errors

The next games of the two teams: In the 26th game, Barcelona will play Real in Madrid (2/11 at 9:45 p.m.), while Panathinaikos will play Villeurbanne in France (2/11 at 9:00 p.m.).