Fenerbahce hosted and beat Panathinaikos for Euroleague 2015-2016 Top 16 Round One. Panathinaikos was not good at the first quarter, then managed to balance the game in the second quarter but then Diamantidis got a light injury and left the game. Without Diamantidis Panathinaikos seemed to lack that something that could help the team steal the game at the end.
Panathinaikos lost from Fenerbahçe Ülker in Istanbul for Euroleague. Panathinaikos went to Istanbul without Esteban Batista nor Loukas Mavrokefalidis and on the first quarter Dimitris Diamantidis got a light ankle injury. Withouth center nor Diamantidis the Greek champions could not play for victory and lost by Fenerbahçe. Andrew Goudelock had 18 points with 4/5 three pointers, Semih Erden had 14 points and 7 rebounds and Jan Vesely had 12 points with 6/7 two pointers. For Panathinaikos AJ Slaughter had 20 points with 4/11 three pointers, James Gist had 9 points and 5 assists, Vasilis Charalampoulos had 7 points and 3 rebounds. Janis Blums had 0/4 three pointers and did not score any points.
Quarters' scores: 18-18, 36-32, 67-48, 84-62.
Panathinaikos hosted and beat Fenerbahçe Ülker for Euroleague third day. Panathinaikos players probably felt good with Želimir Obradović in the court even as the opponent coach and had a great day. With 31 points in the first quarter and 59 in the half time Panathinaikos was unstopable. Panathinaikos finished first half with 2 team turnovers, 10/12 three pointers and 16 assists. AJ Slaughter had 17 points with 5/7 three pointers, Esteban Batista had 14 points with 6/7 field goals and Dimitris Diamantidis with his 6 assists reached 1005 total assists in Euroleague. In the second half it was natural that Panathinaikos would not continue in such high level but still broadened the difference in the third quarter. Only in the last quarter Fenerbahce with partial score 9-16 lowered the difference to 18 points. Panathinaikos had 18/26 three pointers, 25 assists and 16 turnovers (14 in the second half). Fenerbahce Ulker with 4/21 three pointers could not compete but with only 7 turnovers didn't let the score reach record levels. AJ Slaughter had 23 points with 7/10 three pointers, Antonis Fotsis had 4/4 three pointers, Janis Blums had 3/3 three pointers and Dimitris Diamantidis had 10 assists. Dimitris Diamantis needed one assist to break the 1.000 assists milestone and is now counting 1.009 assists in Euroleague.
Quarters' scores: 31-19, 59-36, 82-57, 91-73
Panathinaikos hosted and defeated Fenerbahçe Ülker for Euroleague TOP 16. This was the first game that Obradović played in OAKA Athens as coach of the opponent team, after he left Panathinaikos. Fenerbahçe Ülker won the first game in Istanbul by five points, 77-72, and has also won Olympiacos for the TOP 16 Fenerbahçe started better the game and was leading the score 12-19 in the first quarter, that finished with score 16-19. Panathinaikos balanced the game in the second quarter and the leading of score was changing sides. Half time finished with Panathinaikos leading the score by 4 points, 41-37, with a goal foul scored by Dimitris Diamantidis. Panathinaikos collected 6 more rebounds in the first half but also made 3 more turnovers. In the fist half Zach Wright had 10 points and Mike Batiste 5 rebounds. In the second half Fenerbahçe made a 6-0 run since Panathinaikos didn't score in the first 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Dimitris Diamantidis with a three pointer scored for Panathinaikos and took back the lead in score. Mike Bramos with another three pointer made the score 50-45. Bramos had 4/4 three pointers and 1/1 field goals up to that point. With six consecutive points by Antonis Fotsis Panathinaikos finished third quarter with a lead of 9 points, 58-49. In the fourth quarter Bramos scored his 5th three pointer (5/5 up to that point) and gave his team a lead of 12 points and with his sixth three pointer (6/6) Panathinaikos reached the highest difference +15 (66-51). Fenerbahçe tried to approach Panathinaikos but Dimitris Diamantidis with free throws and Mike Bramos with three pointers secured the victory for Panathinaikos. Panathinaikos won by 9 points and covered the difference of the first game. For Panathinaikos Mike Bramos was the top scorer with 23 points (7/8 three pointers, 1/1 field goals, 4 rebounds). Dimitris Diamantidis had 15 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals and 11 fouls drawn. Antonis Fotsis had 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Quarters' scores: 16-19, 41-37, 58-49, 76-67.
Željko Obradović returns to Athens for the first time as the opponent coach of Panathinaikos. Obradović was the head coach of Panathinaikos from 1999 to 2012 and won 11 Greek Championships, 7 Greek Cups and 5 Euroleague titles with the team. Panathinaikos' current head coach Fragiskos Alvertis was Panathinaikos' captain when Obradović was the coach and they had a special relationship.
Fenerbahçe Ülker defeated Panathinaikos in Istanbul for Euroleague TOP 16. This was the first time Želimir Obradović was Panathinaikos' opponent after he left the Greek champions. Fenerbahçe Ülker had 3 defeats and Panathinaikos had 3 victories in the first 3 games of the TOP 16. For Panathinaikos Dimitris Diamantidis served 8 assists and scored 9 points with James Gist scoring 6 points and collecting 10 rebounds.
