Kavvadas is also happy about such a hand from Nedovic

Once upon a time in the sports section of the newspaper “I Proti”, many, many years ago, respected colleague Nikos Katsaros tried his luck with a crumpled piece of paper. His goal is a trash can three or four meters behind his office. He throws one in. He throws another one in. He crumples up a third piece of paper and “shoots” it in too!

Cool, he gets up, puts on his jacket, takes his handbag and says the historical sentence: “With such a hand, rejoice”.

The same could be said for the incredible Nemanja Nedovic at the end of the half, when he scored a three from the logo almost in the middle of the field. But because there was a second half, we’ll paraphrase it and say: “With such a hand from Nedovic, Panathinaikos is happy”. And Vassilis Kavvadas too.

The 30-year-old center perfectly welcomed the assist of “Nento” for the basket, in Panathinaikos’ most critical attack 31” before the end. Asteras’ entire defense focused on the Serbian guard, who saw the unmarked Kavvada face with the basket. Nearly clean, Kavvadas in the air and Panathinaikos with a four-point safety cushion (75-71).

A great victory in every sense for the psychology of Panathinaikos, who went to OAKA, certainly disappointed by his defeat in Heraklion and the loss of the cup, without Papagianni, Papapetrou, Okaro White and Jovic. An organized and strong team defeated. If he continues like this in the remaining ten games instead of suffering, the EuroLeague can provide him with plenty of supplies.

Especially when he prepares the bench players. Priftis, committed by the losses, threw down those he had on the bench. Mantzoukas seems to be “scrubbing”, Hugaz caught the first cold in a fight of this level, it is certain that they will be more “baked”, take their time and test their strength.

Bill the Terrible

Kavvadas is of course not a beginner. But who would have expected that from the “Beast”, as Rick Pitino affectionately called him. It was shocking. He smashed the individual points record (8 were from Panathinaikos’ previous game against Efes), stopping at 17, with 8/10 two points and back-to-back wins against the big Red Star.

Normally, Priftis should bold the name of the experienced center. It’s the second match that takes time and seizes the opportunity.

The baguette in hand was of course Nemanja Nedovic again. Against his former team, the Serb had moments of his great class, not only because he shot accurately (4/7 threes) and thus disrupted all the players he threw at Radonjic, but also because his teammates (Evans – Kavvada and others ) with five assists, a testament to his acumen on the floor.

Nedovic is by far the best Panathinaikos has, even if he is often haunted by the injuries that have marked his career. He wasn’t initially compared to Derrick Rose. Unfortunately, he had similar problems with the American super ace. But both make priests in the stadium when they are healthy.

Nedovic signed Panathinaikos’ win with 25 points and 5 assists, as happens with almost every success of the Greens. However, he will need some distance from the Serbian standings because if he eventually tires or gets tagged by even better defenders than Asteras’, he’ll need to find someone else to “pull the cart”.

Macon is a question. In the second round he scored 11.3p while he had three more in the first half (14.3p). And against Asteras (but also in the final with Olympiakos), when Panathinaikos needed him, the American didn’t fully respond. The “Greens” will need him, because Nedovic eats an incredible catch-up and can’t do everything alone.

In general, Panathinaikos played good defense in relation, was very accurate near the basket (22/33, two points), gave 19 assists and made only 8 errors, an element that may have given him the win as he has many Rebounds lost ( 15 Offense took over Asteras, but proved very wide from a distance and finished the game with 7/27 (3 points).

This weakness plus failure except for Nedovic in three-pointers (4/7 the Serb, 3/13 the rest) are some points coach Priftis should point out when he has to comment after such a win.

With Zenith in OAKA?

PAO have recorded 7 wins in 24 games and will now try to be above the penultimate position where they live with Baskonia. Two more games follow in OAKA with Zalgiris and Milan where the ‘Greens’ will look to add to their meager record of wins before taking on Zenit away and heading to SEF for another game with Olympiakos.

Some information, even after the EuroLeague decision that the Russian teams will play on neutral pitches, says that Zenit may ask to play the game that would take place in St. Petersburg at the stadium where Panathinaikos is based ! This means that Priftis and his players stay at home for ten days.

PS: As a result, Panathinaikos has no regrets about sending Giannis Papagiannis to the national team to play against Turkey. Obviously, if the game were more important (this one had none but prestige), the international center would wear a shirt and shorts and not sit on the bench in his uniform, just so Panathinaikos wouldn’t pay a penalty for incomplete roster.