Tired Greeks lose on the road in the Euroleague
Exhausted from playing four games in under 10 days, Panathinaikos and Olympiakos suffered road defeats on Thursday and Friday, in Madrid and Istanbul respectively, for the Euroleague.
Holder Panathinaikos went down 90-86 at Real Madrid, though this loss was very different to that two days earlier at Paris basketball.
On Thursday the Greens fought hard to reverse Real’s strong lead from the first quarter (28-19) and went twice within two points in the third period. However the hosts held on and avenged their loss at the Euroleague final in Berlin a few months ago.
Kendrick Nunn made 23 points and Juancho Hernangomez added another 16 for the Greens.
Olympiakos wasted a 15-point lead in Turkey on Friday to lose 91-89 to Anadolu Efes.
Shane Larkin proved once again unstoppable (24 points for Efes) as he led the Turks to a comeback from 23-8 down and 70-65 at the end of the third quarter to victory, with Olympiakos losing the lead for the first time halfway through the last quarter.
Shaquielle McKissic was the top scorer for the Reds with 17 points, followed by Sasha Vezenkov with 16.
Both Greek teams are now on a 2-2 record, at the end of this double week.
