Calathes, Rivers lead the Greens to triumph in Piraeus

Champion Panathinaikos is already looking good for finishing top of the table in the regular season of the Basket League, as on the championship's opener it defeated archrival Olympiakos by three (71-68) away from home on Sunday.

Behind closed doors (due to a stadium ban Olympiakos carried from last year's finals) and held at the very beginning of the season, the Greek derby took place in peculiar circumstances, also in the absence of Olympiakos's Vassilis Spanoulis and Brian Roberts due to injuries.

The Reds matched their opponent in Piraeus, however an incident at the host's bench in the second half, with Costas Papanikolaou protesting loudly at the referees and his coach, Yiannis Sfairopoulos, sending him to the locker room, seemed to distract the team and deprive it of a precious asset.

Even so Olympiakos led by up to nine points early in the last quarter (65...