In Milan, what could have been the first great feat of the season fails, but on the contrary, on the parquet of the Oaka in Athens, it loses badly and clearly, 90-63, against the hosts of Panathinaikos. A race without history from start to finish, conducted with authority by a Pana who, despite no longer having all the stars of the past (apart from Diamantidis), has built a solid and complete line-up, with the right mix of experience and young talents (Jankovic and Pappas), drawing the right men even from the margins of the great European basketball, such as Batista, Blums and Wright.
The Greeks dominated both in terms of play, but also from a physical and athletic point of view, while EA7 entered the field softly and never knew how to react, also penalized by poor shooting percentages, especially from long range (6 on 24 from three, while the opponents have traveled to well over 50%). Among Banchi's men it's difficult to save anyone, Gentile never in the game, Hackett back below his standards, the least worst certainly Samuels and Ragland (often among the best at the start of the season), while still bad, sometimes very bad, Brooks and Kleiza (very booed for wearing the Olympiakos shirt in the past), the two hits of the summer market, and so far, compared to last year, Langford's baskets and Jerrells' flashes are terribly missing (both ended up in Kazan).
Milan takes home a severe lesson, the second consecutive defeat after the one in the league in Avellino (and fifth in the first ten official matches), but the hopes of qualification remain intact (also thanks to the defeat of Bayern in Poland and, why not, that of Fenerbahce at home against Barcelona), given that four of the 6 remaining matches will be played within the friendly walls of the Forum, starting with the next decisive match against the Poles of Turow (currently tied on points with EA7 and Bayern at the bottom of the standings), Euroleague Cinderella but who has already shown that she knows how to fight even against clearly superior opponents. A match that Gentile and his companions will not be able to make mistakes (perhaps even trying to make an important goal difference), then Milan's journey in this Euroleague will still be long and will only improve, it is certain that playing like the other night the journey it may stop sooner than expected.
Meanwhile, in between, Banchi's team has the not easy away game in Reggio Emilia on the calendar, the first opportunity to regain the lead in the standings in cohabitation with Sassari, currently the solitary leaders with 4 wins out of 4, but expected from the big match on the parquet of Cantù. Sassari, who is not doing better than Milan in the Euroleague, on the contrary, given that the predictable and inevitable debacle at Real Madrid arrived on Wednesday, which however means the fourth knockout in a row and last place in a group that at the time of the draws was been described for Sardinian training as affordable, or at least not prohibitively expensive. Already complicated situation but still recoverable, starting from the next match at home against Zalgiris Kaunas (fresh from three straight victories), where Sacchetti's boys will have to get the first success in the history of Dinamo in the Euroleague at all costs, given who then in the first leg of the second leg will receive Nizhny Novgorod (in the first leg 88-86 for the Russians) in the match that could relaunch the white and blue ambitions.
