The Panathinaikos guard took another big step forward in his brief, but very impressive, EuroLeague career.
Kendrick Nunn came to the fore at Mediolanum Forum in crunch time
Članak
3 Min čitanja
Regular Season
Round 16 of 34
Group Regular Season
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EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens fought hard for 40 minutes in Round 16. When the dust settled, Panathinaikos had cruised to a 68-76 road win despite losing star center Mathias Lessort, who could not finish the game due to an injury.
The Greens led 65-67 with less than 4 minutes remaining when Lessort tried to score against Nicolo Melli. It was not a very hard foul, but the Frenchman had a bad fall and could not leave the court on his own.
Enter: Kendrick Nunn
Head coach Ergin Ataman decided to bring Kendrick Nunn back into the game to take the free throws. It was a logical choice as Nunn had to miss in his short EuroLeague career, burying all 21 free-throw attempts until then.
Nunn made both shots from the charity stripe and made sure his team would return to Athens with a big victory. After a defensive stop, Nunn buried a stop-and-pop jumper just inside the free-throw line to make it a 6-point game.
Shavon Shields then nailed a jumper off a timeout to bring Milan within striking distance, 68-71. Shields could not score on his team's next possession and Nunn delivered again, taking big man Johannes Voigtmann one-on-one before sinking a dagger three-pointer which sealed the outcome, as playmaker Kostas Sloukas admitted after the game.
"I think our defense in the crucial moments was there," said Sloukas. "Kendrick [Nunn] finished the game with a big three, but generally I think we controlled all of rhythm of the game."
Putting his fingerprints on the closing stages
Nunn scored 7 of his team-high 17 points in the final 4 minutes, allowing the Greens to record its third consecutive victory, all of which have come on the road.
"I am just giving whatever my team needs at the moment," noted Nunn. "We played a hard game, Milan played a tough game and took us down to the wire. Mathias [Lessort] went out and that's when I came in the fourth quarter, and I had to seal the game a little bit
"We are getting better every day. The chemistry is now gelling and now we head back home to continue our winning streak."