Monaco had a good idea by resisting Valencia on Friday evening (79-78). Because in the Euroleague, three days before the end of the regular phase, the positions are tightening behind the untouchable Real Madrid (25 wins – 6 losses), authoritarian winner in Belgrade on the Partizan floor on Thursday (88-76).
Barcelona fell on Friday to an incisive Panathinaikos (89-81) behind the back duo Kostas Sloukas (18 points, 8 assists) – Kendrick Nunn (22 points, 5 caused fouls), perfectly supported by the French pivot Mathias Lessort, untenable (13 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, 5 caused fouls).
Monaco, Pana, Barça: three teams for a runner-up
Barça had a 12-point lead at the break (46-34) but exploded after the locker room, conceding 55 points in the second half. The Greeks’ success – the fourth in their last five Euroleague matches – means that three teams are tied for second place: Monaco, Pana and Barcelona, all with an identical record of 20 wins and 11 defeats.
Note that the Roca Team has the particular point average over Barcelona, defeated twice in the regular season, but not over Panathinaikos, against whom it lost twice.
Fenerbahçe could have joined the party if they had managed to validate the hold-up they were plotting in Milan. After being trailed by 17 points, the Turks managed to catch up and regain control (73-70, 38th) behind Scottie Wilbekin (15 points) and Jonathan Motley (13).
But iron defense, a 3-point shot from Nikola Mirotic (13 points, 7 rebounds) then a mid-range shot from Shavon Shields (15 points, 5 assists) allowed Milan, after Monaco two days earlier, to to pay the scalp of Fenerbahçe (77-76) and to maintain its hopes of play-offs or play-in (14-17, 10th tied with Partizan Belgrade, Valencia and Efes Istanbul).
Maccabi Tel Aviv in ambush
In the other matches, Maccabi Tel-Aviv easily prevailed in Munich (89-74, 0 points 1 assist, -5 rating for Sylvain Francisco for Bayern, 17 units for Jasiel Rivero for the Israelis). Only seventh (18-13), out of five wins in a row, the club is in ambush to steal from Fenerbahçe or Olympiakos (both at 19-12) direct access to the play-offs, reserved for the first six in the ranking.
Already out of the race for the final stages, the Red Star ended a series of six defeats by inflicting a big setback (94-79) on a very morose Virtus Bologna, thanks to Milos Teodosic in conductor mode ( 11 points, 9 assists), well supplemented by Nemanja Nedovic (25 points 7 assists).
2024-03-22 22:19:19
#Panathinaikos #falls #Barcelona #Monaco #ties
