Record win against Panathinaikos
‘Incredible’ Alba sweeps through the EuroLeague
10/20/2022, 1:08 p.m
Alba still intoxicated: The weakened basketball champion also wins his third game in the EuroLeague. The Greek star troupe from Panathinaikos Athens is impressively presented in their home hall. The Berliners hold their ground in the top European group.
Record win, dream start, perfect record: For Alba Berlin, things are going like clockwork in the EuroLeague. “It was a magical evening,” said head coach Israel Gonzalez after the doubles winner had impressively outclassed the Greek record champions Panathinaikos Athens at 94:65 (43:33). Alba never won higher in the premier class. “Again, the group feeling was so important. Again, it was the values and the spirit of these players,” said the Spaniard Gonzalez on Wednesday evening and bowed to his team: “We were able to play incredible basketball, on offense and on defense.”
Berlin are currently second in the table behind the star team Fenerbahce Istanbul and ahead of Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Olympiacos Piraeus, all with a 3-0 record. While FC Bayern (0:3), quarter-finalists for the second time in a row, has not really arrived this season, the Berliners are impressing – and the audience, including the fastest woman in Europe, Gina Lückenkemper. “The support from the fans was great, we could feel it very directly. It was perfect today,” said Gonzalez.
Four failures? What does Alba care
Ben Lammers returned to the German champions for the Athens duel after his illness, but the injured Maodo Lo, Johannes Thiemann, Jaleen Smith and Marcus Eriksson were still missing. But the team was not influenced by this. In the middle of the first quarter, the team managed four successful long-distance shots in a row, and Alba took a double-digit lead for the first time (17:6). But then the team let something go 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.
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. Just two days after the extremely hard-fought round of 16 success in the BBL Cup against Telekom Baskets Bonn (98:95), Luke Sikma was the key player with 16 points and 15 (!) rebounds.
“Starting this EuroLeague season 3-0 is simply a dream,” said forward Louis Olinde. Already on Friday (7.30 p.m. / MagentaSport) the Berliners will continue in Turkey at defending champion Anadolu Istanbul with the German national player Tibor Pleiss.