The climate is not exactly pleasant for Panathinaikos after the heavy defeats against Olympiakos and Bayern Munich, but life goes on and the Greens had to compensate for the absences of P. Kalaitzakis, Grigonis, Bacon on Saturday afternoon (7.1.). They did it, they even won a thousand tries (72-71) from Peristeriou bwin for the 11th game of the Basket League and hope that in the following hell week they will take a step forward and not back.

At 9-2 Panathinaikos (5-0 home and 4-2 away), with Dejan Radonic supporting Walters, Giorgos Kalaitzakis, Gudaitis, Lee but once again seeing two faces. A positive and heartbreaking one that almost led to the final wreck. The Greens took the win and bought themselves some time, but it’s clear from the body language of almost every player that the situation is borderline and possibly irreversible. 13 assists with 25 errors were counted by the hosts, who even took the lead with 22.

Peristeri bwin lost 7-4 (5-1 h, 2-3 a) with Vassilis Spanoulis complaining heavily about the way his players approached and managed the game, especially in their good time in the third period. Apart from Leonidas Kaselakis and Alexa Radanov, he didn’t have anyone else in really good shape, most of them had eruptions, although of course they were thinking about the second game of the Basketball Champions League play-in series against Dijon. And yet they have a bitter aftertaste because they have shown that they can also claim victory.

Panathinaikos’ start was positive (13-3 in 5′), with 3/5 three-pointers and with G. Kalaitzakis-Williams having all his team’s points. Something similar happened at the end of the period (23-8) when Kaselakis had all eight of Peristeri’s points, 1/8 two-pointers and 2/10 three-pointers, in a really, really lukewarm, bad quarter.

It took Spanoulis 11 minutes to defeat his side’s second-scorer. The first complaints about the referee came in the 14th minute when Papagiannis was given a technical penalty after arguing for a foul in a block on Agravanis. The game didn’t spoil, at halftime (46-28) the home team had 10/14 two points and the guests only 9/32 shots, with seven assists for ten errors and with Kaselakis playing alone against everyone.

If Peristeri was “lukewarm” in the first half, it was so decisive at the beginning of the second when a 2:13 was reduced to seven in one part (48:41 at 24′). Then came the reaction of Panathinaikos, who responded with his own 13-0 for +20, with Paris Lee and Walters leading that counterattack until the end of the third period (65-44).

The Pigeons cut it to nine (65-56) with six minutes left in the finals, cutting it to seven on a Juston basket (65-58) to follow a Denmon basket in surprise and flare-up. Francisco hit a 3-pointer to 68-65 with 2:24 left, Juston made a steal to 70-67 and made another basket to 70-69 before Lee responded with 3-pointers and two more missed the score at 72- 71 In the time remaining, Denmon teeed off in poor conditions, missed and the greens survived.

THE REFEREES: Manos, Kardaris, Theonas

THE DECADES: 23-8, 46-28, 65-44, 72-71

Panathinaikos (Randonic): Walters 12 (6/7 two-pointers, 0/4 three-pointers, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals), Williams 6 (2/6 shots, 2 rebounds), G. Kalaitzakis 10 (1/ 1 two-pointers, 1/4 3-pointers, 5/6 shots), Ponitka 5 (2/3 2-pointers, 1/2 shots, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 turnovers), Gudaitis 10 (4/6 2 -Pointers, 2/7 shots, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks), Lee 20 (3/3 2-pointers, 3/5 3-pointers, 5/7 shots, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals), Papagiannis 2 (1/5 shots, 3 rebounds, 4 turnovers), Bohoridis , Mantzoukas 7 (1)

BWIN PIGEON (Spanoulis): Bilan 2, Francisco 18 (2/4 2-pointers, 4/12 3-pointers, 2/2 shots, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals, 5 turnovers), Denmon 10 (2), Kaselakis 14 (2/6 twos, 3/6 threes, 1/1 shot, 6 rebounds), Agravanis 5 (1/9 shot, 4 rebounds), Juston 10 (5 rebounds), Moraitis, Radanov 12 (1 threes). Pointer, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 thefts), Poulianitis, Persidis, Zougris

Panathinaikos team statistics: 19/28 2-pointers, 7/25 3-pointers, 13/23 shots, 40 rebounds (32 defense – 8 offense), 13 assists, 10 steals, 5 blocks, 25 turnovers

Peristeri’s team stats: 14/33 2-pointers, 11/35 3-pointers, 10/14 shots, 42 rebounds (27 defensive – 15 offensive), 14 assists, 18 steals, 20 fouls

The next games of the two teams: On Matchday 12, Panathinaikos hosts Aris (15 January, 3:45 p.m.), Peristeri bwin plays PAOK in Palataki (15 January, 7:45 p.m.).