The Greens kept streaking behind the grit of Lessort

The Panathinaikos center played through severe pain while an unsung teammate helped shut down a legend.

Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens center Mathias Lessort looked certain to miss his team's Round 17 home game against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade after having suffered a heavy fall in the closing stages of a Round 16 win at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan last week.

With around 3 minutes left in that contest, Lessort landed awkwardly on his back and eventually had to be helped off the court after having scored 16 points in that 68-76 road victory.

Six days later, Lessort came off the bench in Thursday's 82-65 home rout of Zvezda to post 13 points and 4 rebounds in 29 minutes despite playing through pain for a telling contribution to his team's emphatic victory.

"Believe me, I am in pain," Lessort said in a halftime interview when it was suggested he had already shaken off his back injury.

The big man's grimaces during and after the game said it all, but Lessort showed steel will to ignore the setback as Panathinaikos racked up its fourth successive win in Europe's premier club competition.

The Greens also owed their win, in no small part, to ironclad defense on Zvezda's star player Milos Teodosic, who was stifled out and kept scoreless after winning last week's MVP award with a blistering performance against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Teodosic shined with 27 points and 14 assists in Zvezda's 92-98 win at the Israeli giant, giving him five-game averages of 15.4 points, 7.8 assists and 22.6 PIR.

But in the OAKA Altion Arena he was a non-factor, and Panathinaikos head coach Ergin Ataman singled out one of the game's unsung heroes in containing the playmaker.

"The plan was to put full pressure on Teodosic," Ataman told the post-game press conference. "Last week, he was the MVP and tonight [Panagiotis] Kalaitzakis did a great job on him.

"We didn't play a great game on the offensive end, but the defense was excellent. I am very happy because we are [ranked] fourth halfway through the regular season and it's a great result for us."

The Greens now face a stern double-round test of their credentials in Spain next week, when they will visit Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz on January 3 before taking on Valencia Basket two days later. Ataman will hope to have a fully fit roster after the New Year's Eve festivities in a bid to extend the Panathinaikos winning streak.