Antetokounmpo was Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens's X-factor in its 81-89 road win over LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
Kostas Antetokounmpo's critical defense helped the Greens
Article
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 14 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Though he did not play much of a role for the first three quarters of the game, Kostas Antetokounmpo provided the defense and intensity that Panathinaikos needed down the stretch. In fact, Antetokounmpo played just 31 seconds at the end of the third quarter. But when Mathias Lessort was called for his fourth foul early in the fourth quarter and Olek Balcerowski struggled to stop physical center John Egbunu, Panathinaikos head coach Ergin Ataman decided to give Antetokounmpo a shot. And Antetokounmpo made the most of it.
With the game tied at 69-69, Antetokounmpo used his long arms to grab an offensive rebound and get a three-point play opportunity. He grabbed an offensive rebound later on and had two monster blocks to stop ASVEL's comeback. First, he rejected Joffrey Lauvergne's dunk attempt almost half a meter above the rim, in what will surely be one of the best blocks of the season. Antetokounmpo then had another huge block on Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
Despite missing all of his 5 free-throw attempts, Antetokounmpo finished the game with a PIR of 4, getting 2 points, 3 rebounds, an assist, 2 blocks and 3 fouls drawn in 7 minutes and 22 seconds on the floor.
Once Panathinaikos stepped up on defense behind Antetokounmpo's physicality, things started to roll on offense. ASVEL was within 74-76 with 3 minutes remaining when Marius Grigonis struck from beyond the arc and Mitoglou followed Sloukas's six-meter jumper with his own shot from downtown to seal the outcome, 76-84, in the next-to-last minute.
Sloukas and Coach Ataman did not miss the chance to praise Antetokounmpo's efforts after the game.
"I think we took good decisions on offense in the last 5 minutes. We executed on offense and had open shots," Kostas Sloukas said after the game. "We took the rebounds and Kostas [Antetokounmpo] helped us a lot also on defense with 3-4 blocks and finally, we took the win."
"Defensively, I would like to say that we had a great contribution in the last quarter from Kostas Antetokounmpo," Coach Ataman said. "He gave us what we needed on defense to protect our paint and we got an important victory after three losses in a row. Now, I hope we start to win again."
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