Magic basketball: Tamir Blatt with a nice pass over the shoulder to Luka Sikma
By Nicolas Sowa
Alba Berlin is currently unstoppable!
The Berliners also won their third game in the Euroleague. On Wednesday evening, the weakened basketball Bundesliga team gave the Greek runners-up Panathinaikos Athens no chance in front of 9055 spectators thanks to a strong defensive performance at 94:65 (43:33). Alba remains in the top group without losing points. The best Berlin throwers were Luke Sikma with 16 and Tamir Blatt with 15 points.
Ben Lammers returned to the German champions after his illness, but the injured Maodo Lo, Johannes Thiemann, Jaleen Smith and Marcus Eriksson were still missing. Coach Israel Gonzalez’s team was not influenced by this.
Luke Sikma vs Panathinaikos Athens (Photo by Mathias Renner/City-Press GmbH)
In the middle of the first quarter, his team managed four successful long-distance shots in a row, and Alba took a double-digit lead for the first time (17:6).
But after that, the host left some things offensively. Panathinaikos closed to two points again. Alba remained unimpressed and, thanks to the very strong defensive work, kept winning the ball. Before the break, the lead was double digits again.
Malte Delow celebrated his comeback after a meniscus operation (Photo by Mathias Renner/City-Press GmbH)
Alba came out of the dressing room with a lot of momentum and immediately put on a 17-0 run. In this phase, the hosts acted almost as if they were intoxicated and pulled away to 60:33.
Athens was able to shorten the gap a bit in the meantime, but Berlin picked it up again in the last quarter and won confidently.