Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens breezed to an 82-65 home victory over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade with a dominant display that kept the visitors on the back foot from start to finish in a lopsided contest.

Panathinaikos flexed its muscles on Zvezda to keep rolling

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens breezed to an 82-65 home victory over Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade with a dominant display that kept the visitors on the back foot from start to finish in a lopsided contest.

The Greek team improved to 10-7 with a fourth successive win, while Zvezda dropped to 6-11 as its inconsistent form continued after a lackluster performance from some key players, who shined in the previous round’s win over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.

At one end, Mathias Lessort served up a heroic performance after a horrific-looking fall he took in the Round 16 win at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, when he landed on his back and looked set to miss the game against Zvezda.

The center played through excruciating pain, contributing with 13 points and 4 rebounds in 29 minutes on the court, personifying his team’s fighting spirit which saw Panathinaikos blow away Zvezda despite a relatively modest offensive performance.

Dinos Mitoglou's highlights vs Crvena zvezda

In contrast, last week’s MVP Milos Teodosic, who racked up a game-high 27 points and 14 assists in the 92-98 win at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv, was kept invisible at OAKA as he finished the game on 0 points, 3 assists and 2 turnovers.

Panathinaikos shot just 5-of-22 from downtown but confined Zvezda to 4-of-25, with the home team totally dominating the boards. Coach Ataman's men amassed 40 rebounds, 15 of them on the offensive end, while Zvezda collected 30 boards, of which 8 were offensive.

Poignantly, Zvezda also committed 14 turnovers while it only managed 12 assists, highlighting the home team’s ironclad defense.

Dinos Mitoglou, who posted 15 points and 5 rebounds in 23 rock-solid minutes on the court, thanked the home fans who turned up in droves at holiday time to support their team and created a cracking atmosphere.

Game News

“I want to congratulate the people who came here through these days. People usually go somewhere on vacation \[at this time of the year\] to take their minds off the city a little bit,” Mitoglou said after the game. “But they turned up, we had a wonderful crowd and a great atmosphere, so it’s a victory for them.”

Coach Ataman pointed out that stifling out Teodosic was crucial. “The guys showed great character and played great defense,” he said. “We enjoyed a convincing win even though we only shot 22 percent from three-point range, which is a testament to our defense. Kalaitzakis kept Teodosic out of the game and we also did a good job on Nedovic. We worked hard together.”

Zvezda coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos acknowledged his team never got going on offense. “We struggled a lot offensively as we never found the solutions that we needed,” he said. “We didn’t find easy baskets or open shots, especially in the second half.”

Panathinaikos is headed for a double-round week in Spain after New Year’s Eve, visiting Baskonia on January 3 before taking on Valencia two days later.

Game Videos

The Greens demonstrated their power with a clinical performance at both ends of the court.

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens v Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (2023-12-28T19:15:00.000Z)

Real Madrid survived a number of absences and a strong physical effort by LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and finished 2023 with a 76-77 road victory thanks to a big start to the fourth quarter. 

Fourth-quarter run was just enough for Real to get past ASVEL

Real Madrid survived a number of absences and a strong physical effort by LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne and finished 2023 with a 76-77 road victory thanks to a big start to the fourth quarter. 

ASVEL had answered every comeback attempt by Real throughout the first 30 minutes and led three times by 9 points. *Los Blancos* finally delivered the punch it needed with a 0-16 run in the first 5:46 minutes of the final frame to take a 10-point lead. The cushion was 11 points shortly thereafter but ASVEL responded one more time with a 15-4 run to even the game 74-74. 

Edy Tavares’s hook shot and a Facundo Campazzo free throw in the closing minute locked up the win, but the foundation was laid at the start of the final period. 

“We started to grab the rebounds and run and get some easy baskets. That’s what gave us a little bit of space. We should have been doing that from the beginning,” said Vincent Poirier, who led Real with 17 points including a number of big dunks.

“The game is decided in the last quarter. You have to give everything you have, all the power you have. You have to leave it all out on the floor. We did a great job, we played smart,” added Tavares, who tallied 16 points and 12 rebounds. 

<center><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="es" dir="ltr">🔥 <a href="https://twitter.com/waltertavares22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@waltertavares22</a> 🔥<br>😀 MVP <a href="https://twitter.com/autoheroespana?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@autoheroespana</a> del último partido de <a href="https://twitter.com/EuroLeague?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@EuroLeague</a> del año <a href="https://t.co/1TGz2x75OU">pic.twitter.com/1TGz2x75OU</a></p>&mdash; Real Madrid Basket (@RMBaloncesto) <a href="https://twitter.com/RMBaloncesto/status/1740485449913717072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 28, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Real head coach Chus Mateo, who was missing Gabriel Deck, Mario Hezonja and Rudy Fernandez, said his team was really challenged by ASVEL but found a way at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

“We started to run a little bit more. We started to play our game, passing to each other. This is how we want to play,” the coach said. "Today it was not an easy execution because their physicality didn’t allow us to play so easily as in other games. They play very good on defense. They didn’t allow us to share the ball. But in the end, we were able to find a window.” 

ASVEL did a good job shutting down Real’s prolific offense, which coming into the game had ranked first in the EuroLeague in PIR (108.4 per game), scoring (88.1 points per game) and assists (21.9 per game) while ranking second best in two-point shooting accuracy at 60.4% and fourth best in three-point shooting accuracy at 38.2%.

Real scored 77 points with 19 assists and shot 52.2% on two-pointers and 33.3% from long range for an index rating of 97.

But the biggest stat that carried Real to the win was 16 - as in the first 16 points of the fourth quarter. 

The champs trailed for most of the first three quarters before getting hot in the fourth.

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne v Real Madrid (2023-12-28T19:00:00.000Z)

Josh Nebo dominated the paint and Tamir Blatt filled Wade Baldwin’s shoes, with both Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv players making the difference in their team’s hard-fought 70-78 win at Zalgiris Kaunas. 

Josh Nebo, Tamir Blatt led Maccabi to victory in Kaunas

Josh Nebo dominated the paint and Tamir Blatt filled Wade Baldwin’s shoes, with both Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv players making the difference in their team’s hard-fought 70-78 win at Zalgiris Kaunas. The Maccabi center set a new career high in points by bagging 22 at the Zalgirio Arena, just a few days after setting his previous career high of 18 points in Maccabi’s 92-98 loss at home against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.

Nebo shot 8-for-11 (72.7%) from inside the arc and a perfect 6-for-6 from the line. He also recorded 6 rebounds, including 4 offensive boards, 2 assists, 1 block and 4 drawn fouls for a career-high PIR of 27. This means that the 26-year-old has had double-digit PIRs in 13 of his last 14 games.

“I just wanted to make sure that we’ll come out and we’ll put our best effort on it, because it was important to come out as a team and bounce back from last week’s \[defeat to Crvena Zvezda\],” Nebo said after the game.

Josh Nebo scored a career-high 22 in Kaunas

The former Zalgiris big man was happy to return to Kaunas, but he was not the only Maccabi player to step up on the night. Blatt also came to the fore in Baldwin’s absence by pairing a season-high 14 points with 8 assists. Zalgiris took a 33-32 lead into the second half, but Blatt netted a big triple to tie it, 35-35. That three-pointer served as the springboard for Maccabi’s comeback, with the visitors outscoring the Lithuanian champs 16-29 in the third quarter.

“We were smart tonight,” head coach Oded Kattash said after the game.” We used our big guys and this was a great performance by Tamir Blatt, who really helped us to win all kinds of situations. Tamir has given us a lot from the beginning of the season. Tonight, he stepped up and John Dibartolomeo and Rafi Menco also helped from the bench. Josh \[Nebo\] had a great game, but Tamir is confident and knows exactly what he’s doing.”

Despite not reaching its offensive standards, taking into account that they came into this game as the second-best offense in the league with an average of 87.0 points scored per game, Maccabi came out victorious from this clash thanks to their defense.

“We performed our game plan really well,” Roman Sorkin, who scored all his 11 points after the break, noted. “Defense is one of the things we’re trying to improve every week. I think we did a pretty good job with that too.”

Maccabi will return to action with a tough double-round week schedule. Kattash’s men will host AS Monaco on Tuesday, before playing away against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in a game that will take place two days later at the Kalnapilio Arena in Panevezys, Lithuania, instead of Istanbul as originally scheduled.

The center remained red hot and the playmaker had his best game of the season to pace the Israeli champs. 

Zalgiris Kaunas v Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (2023-12-28T18:00:00.000Z)

Olimpia Milano (6-10) comes up against Saski Baskonia (9-7) in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Milan blasts Baskonia 76-67

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EuroLeague Live Blog: EA7 Emporio Armani Milan vs. Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Nicolo Melli and Johannes Voigtmann combined for 40 points to pace the short-handed winners. 

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan v Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (2023-12-28T19:30:00.000Z)

FC Bayern Basketball improved to 6-2 at BMW Park and 8-9 overall by beating Valencia Basket 85-84 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

FC Bayern Basketball hangs on to defeat Valencia Basket, 85-84

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Carsen Edwards of FC Bayern Munich is defended by Josep Puerto of Valencia Basket in Round 17 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

The visitors had a slim chance to win the game late on, but Pablo Laso and his charges breathed a sigh of relief as Xabi Lopez-Arostegui's half-court heave was off the mark.

Bayern hangs on to defeat Valencia, 85-84

FC Bayern Munich v Valencia Basket (2023-12-28T19:30:00.000Z)

Panathinaikos B.C. was too strong for KK Crvena zvezda and won 82-65 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Greens overpower Crvena Zvezda 82-65

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EuroLeague Live Blog: Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens vs. Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade.

Dinos Mitoglou led a balanced Panathinaikos effort with 15 points and the Greens won their fourth straight game. 

Defending champ Real Madrid Baloncesto held on to beat LDLC ASVEL 76-77 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Live Blog: Real Madrid escapes ASVEL with 76-77 triumph

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EuroLeague Live Blog: LDLC ASVEL vs. Real Madrid Baloncesto.

Los Blancos started the fourth quarter with 16 unanswered points and narrowly held on at the end. 

Real Madrid escapes ASVEL with 76-77 triumph

Maccabi Tel Aviv B.C.'s Josh Nebo scorer a career-high 22 points in his team's 70-78 road win at Zalgiris Kaunas in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Josh Nebo leads Maccabi to 70-78 victory in Kaunas

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EuroLeague Live Blog: Zalgiris Kaunas vs. Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv.

The Maccabi center remained hot with a career-high 22 points. 

KK Partizan (9-8) came up short against Virtus Bologna (12-5) 75-77 in Round 17 of the 2023-24 EuroLeague Regular Season. 

Virtus Bologna edges KK Paritizan, 75-77

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Isaia Cordinier of Virtus Segafredo Bologna is defended by Kevin Punter of Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in Round 17 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season.

Despite giving up a 13-point lead, the Italian side held on late to snag a victory in Belgrade. 

Virtus edges Paritizan in a close contest, 75-77

Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade v Virtus Segafredo Bologna (2023-12-28T17:30:00.000Z)