Basketball in Greece

SOCCER: Iraklis had three points deducted off its tally for the 2016-17 season on Wednesday for the delayed payment of dues to a former player, and is getting relegated to the second division. Levadiakos is staying up instead.

Game 1 of the Euroleague play-offs saw Olympiakos make the most of its home advantage to defeat Anadolu Efes on Wednesday, after Panathinaikos squandered a 16-point lead to suffer a potentially damaging loss to Fenerbahce in Athens on Tuesday.

Apollon Patras is the second team to go down from the Basket League after Doxa Lefkadas, while Aris snatched the fourth spot of the regular season right at the end, on Thursday.

Kymi has earned a second season in the Basket League, after its win over fellow struggling Apollon that leaves the Patra team with only one combination of results in the last round of games to stay up.

Lavrio produced the upset of the weekend in the Basket League as it thrashed host Kolossos on Rhodes, while Doxa tried to shock visiting AEK at Lefkada but its loss sealed its relegation.

In one of the season's tightest games, Panathinaikos beat AEK in the second overtime on Sunday to keep up the chase on leader Olympiakos with three rounds of games left to the end of the regular season of the Basket League.

BELGRADE - Red Star Belgrade have missed a huge opportunity to get a step closer to the Top 8 stage of the basketball Euroleague after a 66-64 (17-9, 13-8, 12-26, 9-10, 6-5) overtime defeat to Olympiacos Piraeus at Belgrade's Kombank Arena late Wednesday.

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.

Olympiakos saw off the challenge of host AEK on Monday to all but secure the top spot in the regular season of the Basket League, just as Doxa Lefkadas and Apollon Patras as staring at the abyss of relegation.

Panathinaikos wasted a great chance for a win in Istanbul to see, a top-four finish slip away, but Olympiakos got to within one win from the top of the Euroleague table with its victory in Tel Aviv.