Monaco revives against Kaunas, Asvel stumbles against Zenith
After five defeats in a row in the Euroleague, Monaco relaunched by winning against Kaunas, the red lantern of the competition (107-98). Asvel lost to Zenith Saint Petersburg (71-61).
On the occasion of the 15th day of the Euroleague, Monaco put an end to its reverse streak by winning in overtime at the last, Kaunas (107-98), on Wednesday. This is a successful first for his new coach, Sasa Obradovic. With this success, the Rock does not win the race for the top 8. In addition to offering access to the play-offs, such a classification would be the only way for the club to find the Euroleague next year.
Led by 9 points at the start of the last quarter (70-61), the Roca Team reacted under the leadership of Mike James, author of five points and an assist in the first two minutes. The top scorer in the Euroleague in 2019 signed one of his best matches with the Principality club, a double double in the key (20 points, 14 assists). Relieved perhaps from the departure on Monday of Montenegrin Zvezdan Mitrovic, whose reign is not viable in the black series in the Euroleague, nor in the fresh relations with several players in the workforce (Mike James, Will Thomas, Rob Gray).
Kaunas was on the rise
Monaco could even have won in 40 minutes without the unexpected equalizer of Lithuanian Edgaras Ulanovas (5 points in total) two seconds from the buzzer. Red lantern, Kaunas, led since mid-October by the former technician from Boulogne-Levallois Jurij Zdovc, has only three successes but all landed during the previous five days.
For its part, Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne lost to the Russian club Zenith Saint Petersburg (71-61), in its room at the Astroballe, having chased a lot after the score. Still handicapped by the absences of Charles Kahudi, David Lighty or Raymar Morgan, Tony Parker’s club is going through a bad patch with only one victory, against Monaco, in its last seven European meetings.
A catastrophic end of half-time
After a good start to the competition, Asvel suddenly returned to rank in the standings with an 11th place. Led 33-32 at halftime, Villeurbanne suffered from its ineffectiveness on outside shots. The only three-point shot (1/12) was successful by Dylan Osetkowski only at the start of the fourth quarter to bring the score to 52-56. However, the champions of France have always remained in the game thanks to a good two-point address (21/40 to 52.5%) and on the frank throwers (16/19 to 84.2%) before giving in to the last quarter in the course they did not register that twelve points.
But Asvel, in which Elie Okobo had a fairly neutral performance (9 points) unlike the performance of Chris Jones (11 pts) or William Howard (12 pts), was also penalized at the end of the first half and a poor start to the third quarter, notably conceding a 9-0. This sequence allowed the Zenith to pass in front, without the gap ever being closed, for a final defeat of ten points, the biggest gap in the game.