Defeats on the road for Greens and Reds
Panathinaikos and Olympiakos drifted away from their objectives in this second group stage of the Euroleague, as the Greens went down by two at Red Star Belgrade while the Reds lost by the smallest possible margin at Bamberg.
Olympiakos lost 72-71 in Germany on Thursday as despite a relatively good game despite the absences of Mark Lojeski and DJ Strawberry it could not fend off a late comeback by the team of Greece playmaker Nikos Zisis.
The game boiled down to the last few seconds, when Olympiakos led by two and failed to defend properly, or at least commit a foul, to conceded a triple with four seconds togo, before captain Vassilis Spanoulis committed a turnover that condemned the Reds to their sixth loss in 10 games, making their play-off entry a long shot.
Giorgos Printezis scored 19 points and Othello Hunter another 17 for Olympiakos.
Panathinaikos went down 69-67 at the Kombank Arena of Belgrade on Friday as it let slip its first half lead (31-28) to trail by 13 in the second half (55-42), before equalizing (55-55) to take the game down to the wire.
However the poor showing in attack by Nick Calathes and James Gist meant that the efforts by the impressive Elliot Williams (17 points) in the last quarter were not enough for the Greens to take this vital victory that would have seen them challenge Lokomotiv Moscow for second.
Panathinaikos is now in fourth, but can redeem itself if it beats Lokomotiv next week in Athens by more than nine points.
