Panathinaikos Win 72-55 at Partizan in Obradovic's Belgrade Return

By Taki Panos

Some coaches come home to a standing ovation. Zeljko Obradovic got one, politely turned down the gift, and then beat the home team by 17. On Tuesday night in Belgrade, Panathinaikos won 72-55 at Partizan in the fifth round of the EuroLeague, as to10.gr reported, to stay perfect at 5-0 and keep its place at the top of the table. It was a quiet, efficient, slightly ruthless night of basketball, and it came on the evening everyone in Serbia had circled for a very different reason.

For anyone new to the story, the backstory matters. Obradovic is the coach whose name is tied to Partizan's history, but he resigned from the Belgrade club in late November last season, at a time when it was dealing with serious financial problems, according to to10.gr. This season he is back on the Panathinaikos bench, and Tuesday was his first game at Belgrade Arena as the visiting coach. It was also the Greens' first road game of the campaign, after four straight home wins that included the 92-74 win over Fenerbahce we covered last week.

The welcome was something to see. Gazzetta described the arena shaking as he walked in, with fans applauding and chanting his name. There was one awkward beat, though. Partizan usually presents a gift at center court to former players and coaches who left a big mark, and Eurohoops reported that Obradovic declined it, presumably because of the way he left and his relationship with the club's management. According to to10.gr, citing Mozzart Sport, the gift was a specially made photo of him with the message "forever." Love the fans, skip the frame.

The basketball took a while to warm up. Obradovic started Kalaitzakis, Grant, Mantzoukas, Mitoglou and Yabusele, and to10.gr described an opening quarter full of steals, fast breaks and very poor shooting. Panathinaikos had four team fouls inside five minutes and Partizan stretched it to 11-6, but a 9-4 finish to the quarter tied it 16-16. In the second, Juancho Hernangomez hit the Greens' first three of the night for 23-29, Nigel Hayes-Davis followed with back-to-back threes for 27-35, and the half ended 28-35. Neither side was shooting well from deep. That is me being kind.

Then came the third quarter, which is where this game was decided. Panathinaikos opened it with three straight threes in three minutes to go up 28-44 and force Partizan coach Joan Peñarroya into a timeout, per to10.gr. The Greens hit five threes in the period, won it 20-8, and took a 55-36 lead into the fourth. Holding a EuroLeague home team to eight points in a quarter, in that building, in front of that crowd, is not luck. It is a defense that knew exactly what it wanted to take away and then took it away.

Partizan opened the fourth with a quick 5-0 run, and for a moment the crowd had something to hold on to. A three from Badio cut that off, and Panathinaikos managed the rest without much drama. According to to10.gr, it was the Greens' first win at Partizan since March 2010, when Obradovic himself was coaching them, and it snapped a run of four straight losses in Belgrade since Partizan returned to the EuroLeague. Sixteen years is a long time to wait for a road win. Funny who ended up ending the wait.

The scoring was spread around rather than starred. Hayes-Davis led Panathinaikos with 14 points, going 2 of 4 from three, and Hernangomez added 10, the only two visitors in double figures, as Eurohoops noted in its roundup. Badio had 9, Sylvain Francisco 8 with five assists, Yabusele 7 and Fall 6 with seven rebounds. Mathias Lessort scored only four, but he filled the rest of the sheet with nine rebounds, four assists and three steals, per the to10.gr box score.

They did it short-handed, too. Kendrick Nunn and Kostas Sloukas are still working back from injuries, and Bonga was left out of the 12-man roster with a wrist problem, to10.gr reported before tip-off. Hernangomez was back in the group after missing time. Earlier in the day, newsit.gr wrote that Nunn and Sloukas are expected back at the end of the week. Winning by 17 on the road without two of your main guards is a statement on its own.

For Partizan, it was a second straight loss after a strong start, and the record slipped to 3-2. Kevarrius Hayes was their only player in double figures with 10, Tonye Jekiri added 9 points and seven rebounds, and Carlik Jones finished with 8. Before the game, center Joffrey Lauvergne had told Mozzart Sport, as relayed by to10.gr, that Panathinaikos is "certainly one of the best teams in all of Europe right now, if not the best" (translated from Greek). He also said everyone in Belgrade loves Zeljko. Both things looked true by the final buzzer.

Around the league, it was a busy Tuesday. Fenerbahce bounced back from their loss in Athens by beating Zalgiris 99-80 in Istanbul, Crvena Zvezda won 84-82 at ASVEL on a buzzer-beater from Chris Jones, and Real Madrid won 98-89 in Milan, according to Eurohoops. With five rounds played, Gazzetta's standings update has Panathinaikos still unbeaten, while the other Greek giant, Olympiacos, was in action later in the evening at Valencia, who came into the round unbeaten.

My take: four home wins told us Panathinaikos was good. This one told us something more useful. A young season is full of teams that look great in their own gym, and Belgrade is about as hostile a place as the EuroLeague offers, emotion included. The Greens stayed calm through a sloppy first half, then won the game with defense and one hot stretch from deep. I would not book the Final Four yet, because October records have a way of wobbling by February, but this is what a serious contender looks like on a tricky night.

Next up, Panathinaikos host Hapoel Tel Aviv at the Telekom Center on Friday, October 16, in the sixth round, per Gazzetta. If you are watching from outside Greece, our guide on how to watch Greek TV online can help, and if you are in town, there are worse ways to finish a day from our list of things to do in Athens. For more stories like this one, keep an eye on our Greek Sports section. Five games, five wins. So far, so green.

Sources: to10.gr, Eurohoops, Gazzetta, newsit.gr.

Image: Panathinaikos BC crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).