Success!

Relatively speaking, of course. The final score was 113-91 for the Tony Parker-less Spurs, which is a definite improvement from Friday's match, thought not by much.

Hey, that rhymes.

At any rate, Panathinaikos played a lot better this time around, and until half-way through the second quarter, both teams were pretty equal, with the score at 35-32 for the NBA champions. After that, Panathinaikos's players started missing some easy shots and making stupid turnovers again, while the Spurs kept their excellent field goal percentages up, and never looked back.

By the start of the third quarter, the Greeks seemingly gave up, with the Spurs going up with as many as 29 points. Unlike the Rockets, however, they showed more respect to their opponents and started slowing down their tempo. After all, Spurs' coach Popovic had welcomed the Greek team himself, going as far as to give them a tour of their training facilities. You'd expect him to show that level of respect in the game, as well.

The fourth quarter was actually really nice, with both coaches using their backup players instead of their starters, which meant that players on both sides were eager to play some good basketball. Panathinaikos tried to lessen the difference and got it down to 18 about 150 seconds before the end of the match, but a few more silly mistakes meant that the difference passed the 20 points margin again.

All in all, it was a pretty nice game, with Panathinaikos adjusting a little more to the NBA rules, even if the referees were still acting weird. At least they didn't call too many fouls this time, though they did call too many illegal defense violations, on both sides, which I found somewhat amusing. What troubled me yet again was the bad performance of 3D, Dimitris Diamantidis. Didn't score a single point, had too many fouls and turnovers. Maybe he just can't get used to the different style of playing. Generally, Panathinaikos's players had a lot more turnovers and missed shots than they usually do, they must have been really affected by the fact that they were facing the NBA champions, in their home court. Which is, of course, perfectly logical.

I'm reading a lot of whinning in the local media today about how these two games weren't really in Panathinaikos's best interest, with the local league starting only a week from now. I don't know. It's not like they went on a tour in Asia, where they know the opposition would be mediocre, or how Real Madrid, Chelsea etc go on a tour in the States in football, where, again, the opposition kind of sucks. While the players of Panathinaikos may have played two games under a ruleset which they won't have to deal with in at least several more years, it's always good to face a better team than you. Even if you get your ass kicked, as it were in this case.

Plus, it was just amusing to see coach Obradoviç, sitting at the edge of the bench, all grumpy and not saying a single thing. That's a rare sight, people! He gave the match up even earlier than his players, but it's no secret that he's not too fond of the NBA. Elitism? Perhaps. He did say in a later interview that these two games were a great experience for his team and crew, but the jury is still out on whether he was being completely honest or not.

He also did call out the Spurs, saying that it would be really interesting to face such a team in our own court with our fans, and with Euroleague rules. Ooh. Hopefully next year, when NBA Europe Live Tour '08 is supposed to visit Greece.

In other basketball-related news, young center Sofoklis Schortsanitis (Big Sofo, for short,) has reportedly only lost 5 kilograms from last June, and that's terrible news. Why? Because last June, he was 191kg. That's right, one hundred and ninety one kilograms. It's the reason why he missed the Eurobasket tournament, and the reason why his team, Olympiakos, is thinking of waiving him. It's a horrible, sad tale, as he is an excellent player of extremely high potential, and a very young man, as well. This isn't just about his career anymore, even his health will be at danger if he keeps acting like this.

Hopefully things will get better.