Greens and Reds feel the pain in Spain
Panathinaikos produced its first credible performance on the road, but still went down at Vitoria to host Baskonia on Tuesday, while Olympiakos succumbed in overtime at Barcelona on Wednesday.
Baskonia beat Panathinaikos 81-79 in Spain, as the two teams had little separating them and shared the lead almost equally throughout the game.
The difference between the two eventually turned out to be the offensive rebounds, of which Baskonia had 15, including the last one that gave it victory with the free throws by Jayson Granger.
In the end it all boiled down to a buzzer-beating triple by Ioannis Papapetrou, but he failed to add to his impressive tally of 22 points and give the Greens victory in the Basque Country.
Daryl Macon was also outstanding, scoring 13 points for Panathinaikos that only has one win in three games.
Olympiakos had a solid start to its game at Barcelona, pushed its host all the way, but lost 79-78 in overtime.
The Greeks kept Barcelona to just 27 points in the first half, advancing 32-27, but the hosts were clearly superior in the third quarter, registering a partial 28-15, meaning they scored more in 10 minutes than in the entire first 20.
Olympiakos bounced back in the final period, and forced overtime (65-65), but Barcelona made the home advantage tell to win in the end.
Kostas Sloukas scored 14 points, and Tyke Dorsey with Sasha Vezenkov made 12 apiece in the Reds’ first loss in three matchers.
