Kendrick Nunn, a little Jimmy Butler

In the summer of 2019, Pat Riley and Erik Spoelstra brought two diametrically opposed players (relative to their backgrounds) to Miami… One of them was the well-known and outstanding Jimmy Butler…

The other was a youngster who had flown under the draft radar a year earlier, was scouted by Lavrio and ended up spending the 2018-19 season with the Santa Cruz Warriors…

His name is Kendrick Nunn!

Butler’s lion

Four and a half years later, in one of the most crucial games of the EuroLeague season, the then unknown and underrated guard put on his lion “Jimmy Buckets” and the rest is history: Panathinaikos AKTOR’s victory over Armani Milano in Italy!

Nan did not write this story alone, except that at some point he almost marred it with the errors that were the result of his ignorance of the dangers and his excessive zeal in the one-on-one phase and especially in the one-on-all phase. phase!

But he made sure to save the best for last and wrote in green pen the laudatory afterword that brings Panathinaikos AKTOR back into the top four, with all that may (or may not) entail…

When the countdown to the final of the game in Milan began, the six-time European champions had their nest dirty!

The dried up leads

I mean this because earlier in the night they squandered three leads that, if held, would have put them in a position of power: This is how they looked like 24:32 (with their own 10-0) 33: 32, 48:55 became 54-55 and 54-59 to make way for 61-59, but Bastacosi!

With Diego Flacadori, who equalized the score at 65:65, and Matias Lessor, who led the so-called Latin American “life dangerous“(living dangerously) had to retire injured after Nikolo Meli’s hard foul, Ergin Ataman expressed his suffering and his wish…”

“I need a hero»!

On Wednesday evening in Monte Carlo, when he felt that need again, Marius Grigonis raised his hand, already ruining the plan of his coach, who had given Dino Mitoglou the command of the final shot.

After 48 hours, Nunn raised his own hand, without the case developing into a psychodrama like in the game against Monaco: with the score at 65:67, the American guard scored seven unanswered points in 111 seconds in three different ways (2/2 shots for 65-69, twos for 65-71, threes for 68-74) and the job was wonderfully and wonderfully done!

Robbery after murder And “no asphalt”!

In the principality, Grigonis said that “we have committed a robbery”, while yesterday (22/12) in the capital of Lombardy, Nan took the crime to a new level with his goal in the final…

Robbery after murder!

The former Heat, Lakers and Wizards player “wrote” 17 points, five assists, one rebound and was the one who took Panathinaikos by the hand and led him from the dark alleys to the illuminated square of the cathedral.

On the other hand, although he made six mistakes, he is forgiven for that, as Angela Dimitriou also said: “no asphalt»!

And his mentor, you know, Jimmy Butler, is extremely generous, but normally the deck doesn’t lean that way.

With me from the Principality

In short, the … nanotechnology had a pass again, because the so-called thread rope is used: I remind you that against Monaco, with 0/6 shots, until the thirtieth minute he had scored only one point and was still present. ..

And what is with this?

He broke out in the fourth period, scoring 13 points on 5/6 shooting and 2/0.2 field goals to get Panathinaikos out of the tunnel.

And goalscorer and closer

With a sense of déjà vu this evening, he took the situation upon himself, cleaned up his laundry and underlined even more the identity of not only a serious goalscorer, but also a finisher: that is, the player that every team absolutely and passionately wants to have in their team wants team so that the open and pending cases are closed after the games.

At the end of the day, the Greens have picked up two big away wins in Devil’s Week, will have a nice Christmas (unless Prometheus rips their livers out on Sunday) and are on a 3-0 win (Lyon, Monte Carlo, Milan). and will look to make it against Red Star by capitalizing on their undeniable momentum.

The green chameleon

All this is neither small nor negligible, even more so since on Tuesday they came back from -15 and prevailed in a game decided by 90 points, while in Milan they shouldered it in different circumstances and it seemed as if their hosts they would have made their efforts.

The 82 points scored in the first half (41-41) were a surprise that ultimately worked in favor of Panathinaikos, who can support a game with a lot of possession and high scoring better than Armani (without Nikola Mirotic).

In addition, the Greens were exposed several times in the defensive transition, they gave the Lombards a field to run on, they sold the differences easily and quickly in their favor and had a poor rate with 17 assists and 13 errors.

All of this is relative, of course, and became…irrelevant as Panathinaikos improved its defense, held its opponents to 68 points and was unaffected by Savon Shields’ late awakening.

Three guards, three wins and three other truths

Ettore Messina has been slow to bring his youngsters into the lead, while Ergin Ataman, who has increasingly relied on three-man formations, believes he will benefit from Nan’s talent, instinct and determination.

Every victory is a victory, no matter how it happens…

Three wins are three wins, but behind them there are also three truths that create the added value of the series…

• Firstly, Nan doesn’t take it lightly…

• Secondly, Panathinaikos learned to pick itself up and stand up in pressure situations and “on the track” without drifting into suicidal thoughts

• Thirdly, in addition to nanotechnology, he now also has the know-how to escape from other people’s houses.