Zenit – Panathinaikos preview and where to watch

All eyes will be on St Petersburg, Russia, on Monday where Zenit is in position to make history when it welcomes Panathinaikos for a rescheduled Round 6 game, which is set to determine the final remaining playoff matchup. With a win, Zenit would claim eighth place in the standings and reach the EuroLeague Playoffs in its first full season in the competition, setting up a playoff date with FC Barcelona. If Panathinaikos wins, eighth place will go to Valencia Basket. Zenit is coming off an 86-69 win over Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on Friday, while Panathinaikos has lost seven of its last nine games – and four in a row away from home – including a 93-78 defeat in Kaunas on Thursday.

Zenit needs Kevin Pangos to get the team going from the start and try to push Zenit into transition where the team thrives. After a shaky period, Zenit has been playing with a lot of confidence in the last two games. Its success starts with the team’s defense, which is one of only two in the competition that has allowed fewer than 75 points per game (74.7 ppg.). Zenit needs to pay attention to Nedovic and Mario Hezonja and make sure they do not get hot.

Panathinaikos is the second-best rebounding team in the competition (34.5 rpg.), and goes against a team that pulls down the second-fewest rebounds (30.9 rpg.). The Greens must enter this game determined to win the rebounding battle, which will be far from a small task given the matchup of Georgios Papagiannis, Dinos Mitoglou and Ben Bentil going against Arturas Gudaitis, Alex Poythress and Tarik Black.

• Mario Hezonja is not available to play since he was not with team on the original date the game was scheduled.