Shved leads Khimki assault on Panathinaikos

Khimki Moscow Region hit 15 three-pointers en route to a 103-86 win over visiting Panathinaikos OPAP Athens on Tuesday night. Khimki improved to 4-1 on the season, while Panathinaikos dropped to 2-3. The two teams traded blows for the better part of the game, but Khimki pulled away with a 10-2 run early in the fourth quarter and finished the game with a 16-4 run to close it out. Khimki had six scorers in double figures with Alexey Shved leading the way with 26 points and 7 assists. Janis Timma collected 16 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, Jonas Jerebko scored 14, Devin Booker 13 and Dairis Bertans netted 12. Jeremy Evans posted a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds in the winning effort. Jimmer Fredette scored 16 points for Panathinaikos, Nick Calathes had 10 points and 11 assists and DeShaun Thomas also scored 10 in the losing effort.

Booker and Bertans each hit a triple and Shved had 5 points for an early 13-8 lead. Bertans nailed another one and Timma also knocked one down from downtown, but Calathes fed Ian Vougioukas and Jacob Wiley inside as well Ioannis Papapetrou on a fastbreak to put Panathinaikos in front, 23-24. A triple from Tyrese Rice helped the visitors to 25-29 after 10 minutes. The hosts answered with threes from Vyacheslav Zaytsev and Shved early in the second to tie things at 33-33. The teams kept trading baskets and leads. Booker hit another three-pointer to make it 41-38, but Panathinaikos was unstoppable from close range. A three-point play from Fredette and two inside baskets from Dinos Mitoglou put the Greens in front before a triple-plus-foul from Wesley Johnson made it 50-55 at halftime.

Threes from Bertans and Timma got Khimki quickly back in front early in the third, 60-57. Fredette hit from long range and Calathes found Papapetrou for a monster dunk to make it 67-68. However, Khimki answered with a 10-2 spurt, with Timma making a put-back and a three-pointer, as Khimki took a 77-73 edge into the fourth quarter. More triples - another one from Timma and the first one from Sergey Karasev, followed by back-to-back baskets from Shved created an 87-75 advantage in the final quarter. Fredette hit two triples for the visitors, but Shved assisted on Jerebko's three and then nailed a second-chance three-pointer himself as Khimki closed out the game.

Overcoming turnover

Khimki won by 17 points in a game in which it had 17 turnovers, compared to only 5 from Panathinaikos. It was because Khimki shot 15-for 29 from long range compared to the 8-for-25 that Panathinaikos made from behind the three-point line and because Khimki also outrebounded the visitors 45-24.

Scoring triple digits

This is only the second time that Khimki has scored 100 or more points in a EuroLeague game, behind only the club record 111 points the team scored in January 2016 against Zalgiris Kaunas. In that game almost four years ago it was Tyrese Rice, who played in a Panathinaikos uniform tonight, leading Khimki with 20 points, while Shved scored 13.

Improving on defense

Khimki allowed 55 points in the first, but only 31 points in the second half. Panathinaikos scored 29 points in the first and 26 points in the second quarter, but Khimki then kept improving defensively and allowed just 18 points in the third and 13 points in the fourth quarter.

Calathes slowed down

Nick Calathes finished with 11 assists, however, 7 of those came in the first quarter and only 3 after halftime.

Next up

Both teams play again on Thursday. Khimki will be on the road at Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, while Panathinaikos plays at home against Anadolu Efes Istanbul.