Olympiakos and Panathinaikos are just one win away from reaching the league finals as they predictably overcame the resistance of their opponents at Thessaloniki on Saturday.
Olympiakos beat Aris 102-76 at the Alexandrio Sports Hall to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series that leads to the finals.
The Reds had some quiet spells in the game but Aris appeared unable to take advantage of them and threaten their visitors with an upset, submitting from the first half (52-40 in favour of Olympiakos).
“Our bench and the player rotation helped us, so we can now look forward to Game 3,” said Olympiakos coach Dusan Ivkovic.
Loukas Mavrokefalidis led the scoring for the Reds with 18 points as well as collecting five rebounds. Milos Teodosic added another 15 points.
PAOK pushed Panathinaikos as much as possible at the PAOK Sports Arena and suffered a dignified 75-69 loss that gives Panathinaikos a 2-0 lead in the series.
Panathinaikos had the upper hand throughout the game but PAOK gave the champions a run for their money through their good defending at times, never allowing Panathinaikos to stretch their lead beyond 15 points.
However Panathinaikos had an amazing Stratos Perperoglou who in the best match of his career at the Greens scored 33 points with seven out of eight two-pointers and four out of six three-pointers in 31 minutes.
The third game of each series is scheduled for Monday in Athens.
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