5 key questions: Panathinaikos vs. Maccabi

Tuesday night will see the 2-7 playoff matchup begin in Athens

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv are historic rivals who have met in past championship games and in dramatic playoff series. After a quiet stretch, the rivalry will be rekindled as they square off with both teams eager to end a Final Four drought with a ticket to Berlin. Here are some questions whose answers could tell us how this series will end up.

Which Lorenzo Brown will we see?

What a week it’s been for Lorenzo Brown. After a rough patch, he went off on Tuesday in setting Maccabi postseason records for points scored and three-pointers made in defeating Baskonia Vitoria-Gastiez in the Play-In Showdown. Then he returned to Tel Aviv and was with his fiancé as she gave birth to their son. Will the Lorenzo Brown who faces Panathinaikos be the All-EuroLeague First team star of last season? After the Baskonia game, Brown spoke about feeling pain-free for the first time in a while. If he has his full range of mobility back after the injuries that slowed him down earlier, he makes all those around him better. There is no brilliant analysis to be had about this matter. If Brown is at his best physically, he and Maccabi are more dangerous.

Will the Nunn-Baldwin matchup provide fireworks?

Many journalists around Europe were secretly rooting for this matchup. Aside from the fact that these are two of the most dynamic scorers in the competition, their words have been pitted against one another over the past month. It started with Nunn telling reporters he thought he was the best offensive player in the EuroLeague. Baldwin telling the official EuroLeague website that the numbers say otherwise. And Nunn firing back about Baldwin’s NBA stats. Bottom line: they lead their respective teams in scoring with Baldwin’s 18.0 points per game ranking third in the league and Nunn’s 15.4 placing him eighth. And it should be an exciting matchup to follow.

Is the Lessort-Nebo matchup the one we should be watching?

While the Nunn-Baldwin matchup may provide more headlines, is the battle in the paint between the Greens’ Mathias Lessort and his Maccabi counterpart Josh Nebo the one we should be watching? These two are the poster boys for modern, athletic bigs. They have similar numbers with Nebo standing out as the better rebounder (7.3 rpg. to 6.0) and Lessort as the better scorer (13.6 ppg. to 10.9). Nebo outperformed Lessort in their two meetings this season, averaging 13 points and 10 boards to Lessort’s 8 points and 5 rebounds per game. Can Nebo continue his strong production against Panathinaikos and Lessort in this series? The answer to that question may be critical to the series outcome.

How important is controlling the pace?

It could be very important. These teams play at much different paces. Maccabi leads the league by a wide margin at 73.7 possessions on average over 40 minutes. The difference between it and second-placed ALBA Berlin is 1.6. Panathinaikos is way back in 13th place at 69.6. Panathinaikos is the second-most efficient team in the league, outscoring its opponents by 6.4 points per 100 possessions. Maccabi is seventh at 2.4. While those numbers tell a story of how the teams have played over the course of the season, what they do not share is how each team will function at the other’s preferred pace. If Maccabi pushes the pace, will Panathinaikos and its shorter rotation be as efficient? If Panathinaikos grinds the game to a halt, can Maccabi score? It may very well be that the team which controls the pace has a massive advantage.

What role will experience play?

There is no shortage of experience on these two teams’ rosters. On the one hand, the case for Panathinaikos is easy. Head coach Ergin Ataman is a two-time champ, point guard Kostas Sloukas has three rings with two different teams and Ioannis Papapetrou has played in the championship game twice. Meanwhile, the only members of the Maccabi delegation to have Final Four playing experience are head coach Oded Kattash and assistant coach Guy Pnini. On the other hand, Kattash guided eight of his current charges into a grueling five-game playoff loss to AS Monaco last season. The Greens’ squad has little shared playoff history. How much will Maccabi’s shared experience help it? What impact will Ataman and Sloukas have on the Panathinaikos players stepping into the playoff waters for the first time? We will know the answers to all these questions soon enough!