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...