Reds and Greens stumble on the road

Greece's two teams in the Euroleague stumbled on their return to the competition after Christmas on Thursday, as Olympiakos lost to Zalgiris in Lithuania and Panathinaikos suffered an unexpected reverse to Valencia in Spain.

Depleted Olympiakos went down 74-68 at Kaunas as its available players could not sustain the lead the Piraeus team enjoyed in the first three quarters.

Playing without Nikola Milutinov, Giorgos Printezis and Dimitris Agravanis among others, the Reds advanced 38-36 at half-time and 53-48 after the third period, but the Lithuanians were definitely the better team in the deciding quarter when they scored a partial 26-15.

Olympiakos paid for its numerous turnovers (15 against Zalgiris's six) and was unable to turn the tables in the end, suffering its fourth loss in 15 games. It finished the first half of the regular season in second.
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