Panathinaikos seal EuroLeague playoff berth with Calathes magic
 

EUROLEAGUE REGULAR SEASON - ROUND 30

It’s been a long, winding road, but on the last day of an eventful EuroLeague regular season, Panathinaikos sealed their playoff berth with a confident 87-67 victory against Buducnost.

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For the majority of the first half, EuroLeague underdogs Buducnost kept pace with Panathinaikos, but the Athenians took charge in the closing stages and protected their advantage in the final two quarters. As a result of their victory and Baskonia’s defeat to CSKA Moscow, Panathinaikos enter the 2018/2019 EuroLeague playoffs as sixth seeds, and the Greeks will play third-placed Real Madrid in the quarter-final series. The two teams also met at the same stage of the 2017/2018 season.

Buducnost have long been out of the playoff race, but to their credit, the Montenegrin side kept in touch with Panathinaikos in the opening minutes of the match and were only down by two points after an entertaining first quarter at the OAKA Indoor Arena.

However, Panathinaikos gradually created a solid advantage for themselves as the second quarter moved towards its conclusion, and James Gist threw down a trademark dunk on the buzzer after being picked out perfectly by the talismanic Nick Calathes. That highlight reel moment extended Panathinaikos’ lead to 49-36 at the break.

Calathes, who once again took a leading role for Panathinaikos, registered 11 points, 18 assists and 12 rebounds to become the second player in EuroLeague history (in its current format) to achieve a Triple-Double. The first was Nikola Vujcic with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2005 and 2006.

In full control, the Greens never really looked in danger in the remainder of the game, and they learned their lessons from late collapses in recent home EuroLeague matches against Baskonia (72-70) and Real Madrid (73-74) to close out a decisive 87-67 victory.

Alongside Calathes’ historic heroics, Gist enjoyed a memorable night, earning a season-high 23 points. Deshaun Thomas impressed with 17 points, while Ioannis Papapetrou also reached double digits with 12 points to his name. Goga Bitadze (16), Norris Cole (14), Earl Clark (10) and Nemanja Gordic (10) were Buducnost’s leading scorers.

The quarter-final series against Real Madrid will begin with two matches in Spain. Three wins are required to progress to the Final Four.

HIGHLIGHTS: PANATHINAIKOS - BUDUCNOST

by Shaun Nicolaides

Image Source: sport-fm.gr

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