[Intime]
Panathinaikos and Olympiakos were unable to meet the challenge of their second games this week and suffered painful Euroleague losses – in different circumstances.
The Greens lost 91-73 at Partizan Belgrade on Thursday in one of their worst performances this season, to an opponent whose coach (Zeljko Obradovic) knows them very well.
Up until the 18th minute Panathinaikos was actually well inside the game and led 37-33, at which point it suddenly switched off and let Partizan run riot. The second half left the impression that the European champion had given up, and its defense is a serious problem that requires attention, with 90 points conceded to Barcelona at home on Tuesday, and 91 to Partizan on Thursday.
Kostas Sloukas stood out with 15 points and six assists, while Mathias Lessort and Juancho Hernangomez made 13 apiece.
That was the Greens‘ sixth loss in 14 games.
Olympiakos succumbed to the might of Euroleague leader Paris Basketball, the season’s surprise package, going down 96-90 in Piraeus on Friday.
The Reds were 20 points behind with seven minutes left (80-60), but produced an amazing 22 unanswered points to edge ahead (82-80) for the first and only time in the game.
Paris reacted and scored 10 points in the last 20 seconds of the match to make the most of the host’s turnover and win their 10th in a row.
Pacing Olympiakos, that is on a 9-5 record, were Evan Fournier with 25 points and Sasha Vezenkov with 18.