Vasilis Kavvadas set career-highs in points, rebounds and performance index rating, helping Panathinaikos to make up for Georgios Papagiannis's absence.
Kavvadas seized opportunity in Panathinaikos win
Euroleague News
2 Min lectura
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens faced Crvena Zvezda with just nine players available, as Okaro White, Ioannis Papapetrou, Stefan Jovic were unavailable and head coach Dimitris Priftis decided to keep Georgios Papagiannis out of the rotation. The latter's absence could have turned crucial for the Greens, but Vasilis Kavvadas stepped in as the only true center of the team and became a key contributor in the win.
"We showed some character, we had so many players missing today. We lived without Papagiannis, and I'm glad that we did that, and that we combined it with winning the game, so congrats to the players," said Priftis, who used small lineups and a switching zone defense for many minutes to protect the rim.
But when the game needed a true center on the court, the Greens were able to count on Kavvadas.
He played 20:08 to finish with 17 points on 8-for-10 in two-point shooting, plus added 6 rebounds, good for a PIR of 22. He set career highs in all of those categories. He also turned into the perfect companion for Nemanja Nedovic, who sent his fifth assist to Kavvadas for an alley-oop layup that made it 75-71 with 32 seconds to go.
"Tonight we had a great performance, like a unit, like a team," Kavvadas pointed out after the game. "Obviously, we had many missing players, basic players like Okaro, Papagiannis, Jovic, Papapetrou, etc. We took a win that made us smile again, and it is important for us, for our psychology in the next period."