The Frenchman is already starting to endear himself to the Greens' fans.
Lessort stepped up in Sloukas’s absence to lift Panathinaikos past Bayern
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Panathinaikos Athens captain Kostas Sloukas missed Thursday night’s Turkish Airlines EuroLeague game against FC Bayern Munich due to injury, but Mathias Lessort stepped with a dominant display in the paint as the Greens won 78-71 at OAKA Altion.
The French center combined well with Luca Vildoza in the first quarter and scored 6 points in the opening 10 minutes, including a couple of ferocious dunks off beautiful passes from his teammate.
Lessort added another 8 points in the third quarter and finished the game with a team-high 16 points, going 7-for-10 on field goals and 2-for-3 from the free-throw line in a player-of-the-match performance for the hosts.
“I just try to do my job, to help the team,” Lessort said after the game. “Tonight it was a good night for me. Next time it’s going to be a good night for somebody else. The most important [thing] is to get better every game as a team, not me personally. Get the automatisms going and get in better shape by the end of the season.”
Lessort made his presence felt
Lessort also grabbed 6 rebounds and drew 4 fouls against a strong Bayern frontcourt featuring experienced players such as Serge Ibaka and Devin Booker. Panathinaikos may not have impressed with its performance on Thursday night, but Lessort believes that everyone should trust in the process and take it game by game.
“We are a new team,” he stated. “We are still trying to figure out each other. We just got to get better every game and every day. That’s the most important [thing].”
Slowly becoming a fans’ favorite
What is certain is that after his solid performance against Bayern, Lessort is earning his way into the hearts of Panathinaikos fans.
He achieved that over the last two years at Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade and could certainly do the same with the passionate PAO home crowd.
In fact, he managed to get the fans off their seats with his two slams in the opening quarter, and everyone in Athens is aware that this is just the beginning of Lessort’s love story with Panathinaikos.