Olympiacos Beat Barcelona in Overtime as Panathinaikos Fall to Hapoel

By Taki Panos

Two road games in Spain, two overtimes, two wins. Olympiacos finished their double-round week on Friday night by beating Barcelona 105-100 after extra time at the Palau Blaugrana, as FC Barcelona's own match report confirmed, after Justin Robinson had forced overtime with a three in the final seconds of regulation. Back in Athens, the evening went the other way for Panathinaikos. Hapoel Tel Aviv won 91-81 at the Telekom Center and ended the Greens' unbeaten start to the season, per eKathimerini.

Round 6 closed a busy double-round EuroLeague week, and both Greek clubs came into Friday in form. Olympiacos, the reigning European champions, had come back from 28 points down to win in Valencia on Tuesday, while Panathinaikos had won 72-55 in Belgrade to go 5-0. After Friday, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos and Fenerbahce share first place at 5-1, according to the standings published by Gazzetta.

In Barcelona, the hosts started better and led 30-26 after the first quarter. Then Olympiacos took over. They won the second quarter 31-17, and Sasha Vezenkov closed the half with a three at the buzzer for a 57-47 lead, per the Barcelona report and the quarter-by-quarter scores in El País. The visitors stretched it to 74-60 in the third quarter, a 14-point cushion that both eKathimerini and Basketball Sphere recorded, and they still led 77-66 going into the last ten minutes. It looked calm. It was not.

Barcelona won the fourth quarter 26-15. A Robinson three with about a minute left cut it to 90-88, Vezenkov answered with two free throws after a foul by Joel Parra, and then Robinson hit another long three to tie it 92-92 with seconds left, as FC Barcelona described it. It was the second time this week Robinson had made a big late shot, after his finish against Maccabi on Tuesday, Eurohoops pointed out. Some players just love the last ten seconds.

Olympiacos had tired legs from Tuesday's overtime in Valencia, but they won the extra period 13-8. Barcelona's offense stalled after an early three from Tyrese Martin, and a late three from Jean Montero settled it, according to the home club. Montero finished with 13 points, and Mbaye Ndiaye added 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench, numbers confirmed by Basketball Sphere and Gazzetta, with Codi Miller-McIntyre also scoring 17.

Vezenkov was the best player on the floor. He finished with 25 points, six rebounds and a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line, per El País and Gazzetta. For Barcelona, Robinson and Martin scored 17 each and Dario Brizuela added 13, Eurohoops reported. Afterwards, Vezenkov talked about the long trip. "It is hard to be away from home for so long," he said, adding that "at the end of the day the most important thing is to win" (Gazzetta, translated from Greek).

Coach Giorgos Bartzokas liked how his team won as much as the result. He was without center Nikola Milutinov, who felt strong back pain before the game, and Montero played through an ankle knock. "Montero is suffering from a knock on his ankle, but he asked to play and in overtime he scored very important baskets," Bartzokas said, as to10 reported. "We showed our character, we showed how hard we are to beat" (translated from Greek). Five of their six EuroLeague games so far have been on the road.

The win also eases a week that started with an off-court story. Olympiacos had left Tyler Dorsey out of this trip and sent him back to Athens after his social media comments about his minutes and contract. On Friday, Dorsey gave the club a written explanation and appeared remorseful, while the club is still weighing a disciplinary decision, ertsports reported. Two overtime wins in Spain do not make that go away, but they help the mood.

In Athens, Panathinaikos never got comfortable. Hapoel led 29-25 after the first quarter, 48-46 at halftime and 68-61 after three, per Gazzetta and Tribune. Hapoel then went up 71-61, and Panathinaikos answered with an 11-0 run, led by Juancho Hernangomez and Jerian Grant, to go in front 72-71 with about five minutes left. It stayed tight after that, but from 78-79, Hapoel scored five straight, with an Elijah Bryant three and a Zach LeDay dunk making it 84-78 about two minutes from the end, as both Gazzetta and in.gr described.

LeDay led Hapoel with 17 points and five rebounds, Bryant had 14 points and six rebounds, Daniel Oturu scored 13 and Vasilije Micic handed out eight assists, according to Gazzetta and Tribune. For Panathinaikos, Sylvain Francisco scored 22 and Brancou Badio added 12, per eKathimerini. The bigger problem was the shooting. Panathinaikos made only about 24 percent of their threes and Hapoel 45 percent, per Gazzetta, with eKathimerini also putting Panathinaikos at 24 percent.

Zeljko Obradovic did not look for excuses. "I want to congratulate Hapoel. I think they deserved the win because they played better than us," he said, adding that his team gave up cheap points on defense, per Gazzetta (translated from Greek). On the other bench, Dimitris Itoudis, who spent years as Obradovic's assistant at Panathinaikos, was gracious. "Panathinaikos and we can go all the way to the end," he said (Gazzetta, translated from Greek). Hapoel's X account was less diplomatic, posting "Nobody's Perfect" after the game, Gazzetta noted.

My take: these were two very different nights, but neither one should change how you see either team. Olympiacos keep finding ways to win when things get messy, and doing it twice in Spain in the same week, without Milutinov and with Montero limping, says a lot about this group. Panathinaikos had a bad shooting night and a soft defensive one, and Obradovic said as much himself. A 5-1 start is still a 5-1 start. I would rather see a loss like this in October than in May.

There is no time to dwell on it. Panathinaikos face Peristeri in the Greek league on Sunday at 13:00, Obradovic said, then host Baskonia in the EuroLeague on Thursday, October 22, at 21:15, per Tribune and Gazzetta. Olympiacos host Fenerbahce on Friday, October 23, at 21:15, according to the Olympiacos BC schedule, and that one is now a meeting of two of the three leaders. For more, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Busy week ahead.

Sources: FC Barcelona, eKathimerini, Gazzetta, El País, Eurohoops, to10.

Image: Olympiacos F.C. crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).