Costas, Dinos and the other Costas: Floria constantinata

Our ancient ancestors used to say, “To tris eksamarten uk mandros sofou” and the meaning of this adage fits perfectly in this case…

In Lyon, Panathinaikos made no mistakes as they did in Belgrade and Istanbul and achieved their first clean sheet in a match that looked like a bill for Parliament. He had to vote it out through an emergency procedure!

Many different people took an interest in the process, some obvious and some invisible, except that from a certain point, a personal race developed over who would win the title of best player of the match.

If the six-time European champions had left the newly built LDCL Arena in defeat, they would have done themselves a huge disservice, spoiling the individual achievements of three of their players and achieving another hara-kiri with whatever it took, having sold beer nonetheless. +16 (25-41) Who raised the banner of their absolute superiority as a product of the second period…

Kostas, Dinos and the other Kostas

They have finally held their ground and found the starting point for the expected resumption after three consecutive defeats and are preparing for more…

I mean what I wrote earlier about the race between the candidates and the best possible candidates being at least three…

Three plus…and a half on the Constantine string!

Kostas Sloukas, in one of the most magical performances of his career, notched a double-double with 18 points and 12 assists, grabbed five rebounds, made a steal and, among other things, spectacularly ditched… the tight corset he’d been wearing for most of last year with… Monaco and less last year with Panathinaikos Paris Lee.

The double havas of Mitoglou and FGood luck to Gregonis

• Dinos Mitoglou… continued his swagger, and after PAOK, he also forced Vierbahn to suffer double-double wounds (16 points, 11 rebounds), but this time he did not testify that he placed the ball poorly. As happened on Sunday!
• Marius Grigonis, who developed into a serial killer in Villeurbanne, was not so lucky and it was his duty to clean up the laundry: when the hosts were tied at 69-69, Kaunas’ Morvoni made three big shots in a row and the dice were rolled, so it was worth – and more than – the bill. Which “ate” as soon as the last horn sounded.
• Kendrick Nunn led the way as an instant scorer in the first half and Mathias Lesueur took over in the second half, providing a way for Sluka’s creativity to the delight of the adoring crowd and the dismay of his compatriots.

Milwaukee calls Leon!

This is where the clear and complete best players end and…the half I wrote about earlier…takes the stage.

So there was, and even unexpectedly appeared, the X-factor, ordered by Ergin Ataman (it must be him) from Milwaukee!

I don’t know if Kostas Antetokounmpo stayed up all night watching his brother’s orgy, but he must have learned everything and felt the voice of his (family) conscience telling him to look like Giannis!

Sure, he didn’t and couldn’t score 64 points, like the “Greek Maniac”, but he at least raised his profile, “flashing” two deafening blocks (in fact, the one against Lauvergne was a direct reference to one of Giannis’s against Deandre Ayton in the Final Four of the season. 2020-21) and declined when Lesueur sat on the bench and committed four fouls.

How important was Antetokounmpo’s contribution to Panathinaikos’ escape from Lyon? So much so that Ataman did not give in to temptation, nor was he forced to come out of the blue to bring back the French centre-back.

The figure with the three donkeys!

By the way, the Turkish coach, four minutes before the end of the first half, presented a future formation – if nothing else – with the recovering (after missing seven matches) Hoatso Hernangomet in “3”, Mitoglou in “4” and Lesur in “3”. “5”.

This towering five did not walk and proved to be human, as he “ate” two unstoppable surprises and then Ataman Aaron Aaron pulled out Metoglu and set Nan to make three guards, along with Sluka and Veldosa.

Learn to shoot, boy!

Kostas looked like John to him, and they weren’t even brothers!!!

He also looked like a goalkeeper and, in contrast to his defensive agility, missed five shots that could have been fatal if another simple three-pointer didn’t work!

Dimitris Karidas said this on the TV broadcast and it bit me because I just wrote it in my papers: I don’t know if great souls meet (sic), they met and even threw a crazy party for the big three – indicators!

Three-pointers, assists and Main feedback

Panathinaikos reached its level (7-7) with tanks of 15/34 three-pointers, 23 assists and offensive versatility, but in return they made 14 mistakes and missed 11 shots (18/29) and it is clear that these spelling errors should be food for thought and correction.

If – as he wrote before – the Greens leave in defeat, they will have to mutilate their faces and bang their heads on the wall of the freshly frozen stadium!

They allowed the hosts to reduce the gap of 16 points and pressured them until the end (69-69), but at least they showed basic reactions and succeeded thanks to the successive powerful shots of Grigonis, Mitoglou and Sluka and the defensive elixir of Antetokounmpo.

They had the opportunity to ‘kill’ the hosts early, but they naively managed their strong lead, did not capitalize on their dominant momentum, and left Villeurbanne to raise their heads and put them in a state of pressure and danger.

Shakespeare and… Rogues

“Finally good, all good“William Shakespeare wrote, and Ergin Ataman clearly embraces and exaggerates this theme…

At the bottom of the writing in a long-running event is that simplistic adage that says “Plural even if he was eating“!

When harvest time comes, these grapes could be essential for Panathinaikos to produce the good wine it has been missing for years and years!