Monaco is alive and kicking. Choked on Wednesday at the start of the quarter-final against Olympiakos (54-71), the Principality team turned everything upside down on Friday in Piraeus and won by a wide margin (96-72), scoring almost double the points in compared to the first game to equalize in the series (1-1) in the best of five games. The Monegasques regained the advantage of the field and have two home games on Wednesday 27 and Friday 29 to validate their ticket to the Final Four in Belgrade at the end of May.
However, ASM had started poorly, trailing ten points (6-16) in the first quarter. But with the help of the bench first, Dwayne Bacon (17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals), Paris Lee (8 points, 4 assists), Donta Hall, Danilo Andjusic (19 points, 5 rebounds), who had not played on Wednesday and a stratospheric Mike James then (21 points in the second half for the American leader, 23 in total on 5 out of 8 at long distance), the “Roca Team” imposed its rhythm and its address to enter in the final quarter. with an 18-point lead and ensured his huge success in the last five minutes.
20-0 before half time
The adjustments made by the Serbian coach of Monaco Sasa Obradovic paid off, his team, Wednesday in the half of the field, this time around the ball (assists) and found open shooters at the end of the chain (13 on 26 three- pointers) on offensive reversals, and even on the offensive time limit on several occasions. She also set the pace and condensed her defense to cause twenty stray balls.
After letting go of the storm at the start of the game when Moustapha Fall (6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks) dominated the defense, the partners came to Yakuba Ouattara, who did not come into the game on Wednesday and this time instead. in the fifth place of Alpha Diallo, forfeited (muscle problem), won balls in the second quarter and turned the game 20-0 in the second quarter in five minutes.
“In the first half I was a bit passive and then I came back more aggressively. It will be a long series.”
Off the pace on Wednesday (2 points), this time Dwayne Bacon found the target on individual initiatives. Monaco even increased their lead (40-28) at half time after a three-point shot on the buzzer before Andjusic.
The storm announced on return from the locker room did not cause any damage on the Monegasque side. On the contrary, it was triggered by an exceptional Mike James in the third quarter. Released, confident, even stealing balls to close off on the counter-attack, the American leader scored sixteen points and six baskets in the third quarter alone (against two baskets in the first six quarters of the series), especially a three-hand at eight meters of which he has the secret.
21 second half points for Mike James
Nothing better to air the Palace of Peace and Friendship and give his team an 18-point lead at the start of the last quarter (69-51). An offensive rebound from Sacha Vezenkov, due to Hall’s inattention, and three shots from Kostas Sloukas gave Olympiakos five free runs to come back in fourteen minutes with six minutes to go.
But not enough to hold onto hopes of a return for the Greeks who were sunk again after another award-winning shot from Mike James (79-60) at the start of the final five minutes and then an unsportsmanlike foul by Shaquielle McKissic at Donta Hall who took out Moustapha Fall’s teammates (96-72 in the end), beating only for the second time this season in their hall in the Euroleague.
The pace and confidence have completely changed for the double showdown next Wednesday and Friday in Gaston-Médecin. † I was a bit passive in the first half and then came back more aggressively. It’s going to be a long series “Still, Mike warned James about returning to Monaco.
