Reds' win in Serbia suits Panathinaikos too

Olympiakos defeated Red Star in Belgrade on Wednesday to confirm its home advantage for the Euroleague play-offs and do Panathinaikos a favor beating one of its rivals to the fourth spot, one day after the Greens sealed their own play-off spot with a home win over Armani Milano.

The Greek champion needed overtime in a rather poor game to beat its Serbian host 66-64, thanks to a last-ditch effort by Giorgos Printezis at the end of overtime.

Despite having a mediocre Vassilis Spanoulis and being deprived of Matt Lojeski, Olympiakos had an excellent defensive performance in the first half keeping its host to just 17 points and leading 30-17 at half-time.

However a dark spot halfway through the second half led to Red Star scoring 18 unanswered points to turn the game on its head (from 32-42 to 50-42), before the Greeks recovered to force overtime (58-58) and win the...