Panathinaikos Beat Maccabi at Home

Panathinaikos of Athens beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 90⁠–⁠67 on Friday, 2 October, at home in Athens in EuroLeague Round 3, remaining 3⁠–⁠0 while Maccabi fell to 0⁠–⁠3 (Eurohoops; BasketNews). Guerschon Yabusele led Panathinaikos with 17 points. Nigel Hayes-Davis returned from a hand injury with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes (BasketNews; Eurohoops). Sylvain Francisco and Lefteris Mantzoukas scored 11 each, and Isaac Bonga added 10. Roman Sorkin led Maccabi with 13 (Eurohoops). Panathinaikos have opened a EuroLeague season with three straight games of 90 or more points for the first time in club history, after 91 against Paris Basketball in Round 1 and 102 against ASVEL in Round 2 (BasketNews). Tip was 20:15 CEST (2:15 p.m. ET). With Partizan, Fenerbahçe and Valencia, Panathinaikos stand alone at 3⁠–⁠0 after Round 3 (Eurohoops).

The EuroLeague is Europe’s top club basketball competition, a full season rather than a single cup tie. A rebound is a missed shot recovered; an assist is a pass that sets up a basket. Performance index rating, or PIR, is the competition’s all-in-one efficiency figure. The Final Four is the season-ending weekend for the last four clubs. A three-pointer counts three from beyond the arc (Eurohoops; BasketNews).

Hayes-Davis’s return was the line that changed the night from a routine home win into a roster story. BasketNews listed him as player of the game in his first appearance of the campaign, back from the hand injury, with 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and a PIR of 18 in 25 minutes. The same report called him a former EuroLeague Final Four MVP. Panathinaikos did not need a late rally. They controlled the game from the start and led by as many as 30 in the fourth quarter. Maccabi, already winless, had little answer and left Athens at 0⁠–⁠3 (BasketNews; Eurohoops).

Yabusele’s 17 came in 22 minutes, with three three-pointers, 6 of 10 from the field and 2 of 2 from the free-throw line (BasketNews). Francisco and Mantzoukas supplied 11 apiece and Bonga 10, so the scoring did not sit with one scorer the way a close game often does (Eurohoops). Sorkin was Maccabi’s best on the night at 13 points, with four rebounds and three assists on 5 of 9 shooting. Konstantinos Mitoglou grabbed eight rebounds for the hosts. Keaton Wallace had five assists for the visitors (BasketNews).

The team sheet explains a 23-point margin that was not a rebounding story. Panathinaikos shot 32 of 70 (46 percent) to Maccabi’s 25 of 64 (39 percent), led assists 22⁠–⁠17 and steals 8⁠–⁠2, and forced 16 turnovers while committing 11. Maccabi actually edged the glass, 38⁠–⁠37, and blocked five shots to one (BasketNews). The lead still reached 30 in the fourth, at home in Athens.

The club record is the number that will travel past this round. BasketNews, citing OptaJerry, said Panathinaikos had never before opened a EuroLeague season with three straight games of 90 or more: 91 versus Paris, 102 versus ASVEL, and now 90 versus Maccabi. The same piece called it the club’s best offensive start to a EuroLeague season. Three data points do not make a title, but they are a first in the club’s EuroLeague history, and they arrived with Hayes-Davis back on the floor rather than in street clothes.

Eurohoops’s Friday roundup put four names alone at 3⁠–⁠0 once the night ended: Panathinaikos, Partizan, Fenerbahçe and Valencia. Maccabi are at the other end of that table, 0⁠–⁠3, with Sorkin’s 13 the visiting high. For Athens the week is a blowout at home, a returning forward with 13, 4 and 4, and a third straight night of 90. The season is three games old.