outclassed by Monaco, Asvel sees the play-offs of the Euroleague move away |
Paul Lacombe, LDLC ASVEL player (Photo by Loic VENANCE / AFP)
The European clash between the two teams in the French Championship turned to the advantage of Monegasques on Tuesday January 18 in Villeurbanne. After this heavy defeat (75-100) Asvel sees Monaco move ahead of them in the standings and their dream of the play-offs darken a little more with this 6th defeat in their last seven Euroleague games.
The day after a crucial shock against Monaco on its floor of the Astroballe, Asvel licks its wounds. In a half-full room due to the sanitary gauge, the Villeurbannais struggled to exist, already trailing by 22 points in the 29th minute (75-53). A deficit that TJ Parker’s men were never able to fill in the last quarter, even increasing to 25 points in the end (100-75)
Overwhelmed in defense, Asvel conceded 100 points to Roca Team, a first for Villeurbanne this season which suffered against the quartet formed by Mike James (20 points, 7 assists), Donatas Motiejunas (22 pts) and Dwayne Bacon (21 points) and Alpha Diallo (17 points). For their part, the two scorers of Asvel Elie Okobo (10 pts) and Chris Jones (9 pts) weighed little, in the absence of Raymar Morgan, David Lighty, Victor Wembanyama and William Howard, still injured.
Six losses in seven games
“The big disappointment comes from the first quarter. This is our third match in five days. There is fatigue with a limited workforce. We have the legs to score 24 points, but we don’t have them to defend“, conceded to AFP TJ Parker, the team’s coach, after the meeting.
🏀 We forget and move on…
LDLC ASVEL did not have the weapons tonight to fight against this @ASMonaco_Basket#LDLCASVEL #EuroLeague pic.twitter.com/OABKyo5QQ4
— LDLC ASVEL (@LDLCASVEL) January 18, 2022
Essential in the race for the European top 8, synonymous with play-offs, this shock allows Monaco to climb from 13th to 9th place by passing Asvel which slips to 12th place in the standings with this 6th defeat during its last seven games. The play-off dream of Tony Parker’s team now seems very dark and to prevent it from completely dying out, Elie Okobo’s teammates will not have the right to make mistakes when receiving Red Star Belgrade on Friday and against Munich next Tuesday.