Greens mending, Reds bending
Greece’s Euroleague representatives are heading to opposite directions, as Panathinaikos is clearly on the mend while Olympiakos sees the top eight spots slipping away. In this double week Panathinaikos had one win and one loss, while Olympiakos lost both its games.
The Reds suffered a 90-79 loss at Armani Milano on Tuesday, as their defense left a lot to be desired. The Greeks were second-best in Milan despite their supremacy in offensive rebounds and the 18 points by Sasha Vezenkov.
Two days later the Piraeus team suffered a home reverse to Euroleague leader Barcelona as it once again wasted a late lead to go down 76-74, although it had two chances to take the game to overtime.
Panathinaikos, on the other hand, had what amounted to a promising defeat at Real Madrid on Wednesday (76-66), as it followed up a poor first half (49-27) with a solid second despite the absences of Giorgos Papagiannis and Ioannis Papapetrou.
The Greek duo was back in action on Friday as the Greeks thrashed Valencia 91-72 in Athens, but it was Lefteris Bochoridis who stole the show on the night with his 12 points and five assists.
After all this, with two thirds of the regular season gone, Olympiakos is on an 11-12 record, lying 10th, while Panathinaikos improved to an 8-14 record, on 14th.
The two Greek teams are about to face each other in Piraeus next Friday.
