Olympiakos are on their way to a record-breaking domestic season
after beating Panathinaikos 87-83 on Saturday night in a game that they almost lost before staging a comeback in overtime.The win means that the Reds have 25 wins from 25 games in the A1 League and need a victory at bottom side Iraklis on April 20 to be the first team to win every single regular season game since the ESAKE league went professional in 1991.However, Olympiakos came mighty close to losing their record in the closing stages of regular time against the Greens. In fact, Panathinaikos guard Dimitris Diamantidis missed on purpose the opportunity to win the game so it would go into overtime.
The Greens needed to win by four points or more to overtake Olympiakos at the top of the league. First place is vital because should that team make it to the playoff finals, then they would have home court advantage in the best-of-five series. In recent years, the finals have always been won by the team that had this advantage.
Olympiakos looked like they would have no problems gaining their 25th win until their game started to fall apart in the fourth quarter.
Panathinaikos dominated the boards and were much more accurate with their shooting.
Diamantidis missed on purpose a free throw in the dying seconds that would have given the Greens a win but not the four-point gap that they wanted. So, regular time finished 74-74.
The Reds, however, recovered their game in overtime while Panathinaikos made a bad start with three consecutive misses from long range that put paid to their chances of winning the game by the margin they needed.
Israeli guard Yotam Halperin was the star for the league leaders, scoring 25 points.
Olympiakos have 50 points, while Panathinaikos remain in second with 48.
source: sportingreece
