The Greek guard was decisive down the stretch to ensure the Greens forced a Game 5
Kostas Sloukas masterminded Panathinaikos’s Game 4 win at Maccabi
Last summer, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens shocked the European basketball community by prying Kostas Sloukas away from archrival Olympiacos Piraeus. The Greens had last made the playoffs in 2019, but the arrival of Ergin Ataman signaled a change at OAKA – and he wanted Sloukas to be the motor that drives his team back to the promised land.
Sloukas certainly had some good moments during the regular season, but it is in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs where he is really earning his corn. The 34-year-old had a near-perfect performance for almost all of Game 1 against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, pairing 12 points with 13 assists, but a late turnover – his first of the game – ended Panathinaikos’s hopes of securing an opening victory. Most players would have let that mistake eat away at them, but not Sloukas.
A couple of days later, the veteran guard set a new Panathinaikos club playoff record by scoring 29 points as the Greens beat Maccabi 95-79 in Game 2 to even up the series. Then, a surprising performance came in Game 3 as Sloukas laid a goose egg, finishing with 0 points. However, just as he did in Game 2, he dusted himself down and stepped up once more, this time guiding Panathinaikos to an 88-95 win in Game 4 to force a Game 5 back at OAKA next week.
“We have pressure, I have pressure,” Sloukas told EuroLeague TV. “I was nervous before the game, but I was sure about the team, our team. We knew that we would put our bodies [on the line], that we would fight. We have to stay humble. We need one more victory.”
Aware that his team needed him, Sloukas scored Panathinaikos’s first 5 points of the game to get the ball rolling and give his side an early 2-5 lead. By the time three quarters had been played, the two-time EuroLeague champion was sat on 16 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Yet, it was in the game’s final minutes where he really did his damage.
Sloukas's late-game heroics
With 2:08 remaining and Panathinaikos trailing 88-87, Sloukas got a defensive rebound off a Jasiel Rivero miss to become the joint leading rebounder in the game. As he came down with the ball, Antonius Cleveland fouled Sloukas, sending the veteran to the line. The pressure was well and truly on, yet Sloukas did what a player with his stature is supposed to: knock down both free throws and, with it, put the Greens up 88-89.
Down the other end of the floor, Rivero looked to corral an offensive rebound off a Lorenzo Brown missed three-pointer, but who was there to steal the ball away? The one and only Mr. Sloukas. He then brought the ball up the floor and used his speed to reposition himself on the left side of the floor before finding Mathias Lessort, who was fouled. The French center has been unreliable from the line in this series, but he went 2 for 2 to give Panathinaikos a three-point advantage, 88-91.
Maccabi looked to hit back once more, but Josh Nebo’s runner was off the mark and Sloukas was in the perfect place to grab the defensive rebound. Using all of his experience, he slowed things down and waltzed up the floor. After sizing up Tamir Blatt, he switched on to Nebo and hit the dagger mid-range jumper over the Maccabi big man to make it an 88-93 ballgame with 1:01 left.
Sloukas came out of the game as Coach Ataman put in more defensive-minded personnel, and they managed to get the win over the line, even putting the cherry on top of the cake with a Lessort alley-oop dunk off a pass from Dinos Mitoglou. At the final buzzer, Sloukas erupted with emotion and embraced his teammates, understanding that the Greens need just one more win to make it back to the Final Four for the first time since 2012. However, he stressed afterward that the Panathinaikos squad need to remain locked in ahead of Game 5 at OAKA.
“The job isn’t finished,” Sloukas stated. “We must stay humble because they also deserve to be in this position at 2-2. We played all season for this game right now and we have to be ready in front of our fans.”
Two-time champion Coach Ataman was quick to praise his guard in his post-game comments: “The difference between the game that we lost [Game 3] and tonight is Sloukas. Sloukas again put character, he scored, he created, and he was very important for us.”
Ataman and Sloukas both know what it takes to go all the way to EuroLeague glory, and they will be well aware that history is on their side in Game 5. To date, no road team has ever won in a Game 5. The Sloukas-led Greens will be hoping that run continues when Panathinaikos and Maccabi reconvene in Athens next week.