Two days after managing the money-time in Belgrade, AS Monaco was unable to reproduce such a performance in Kaunas. In a game with very low scoring (63-62), the Principality club had the opportunities to win at the end of the game, notably with Mike James, but the Monegasque star did not succeed in making his team win .
Too many bad choices late in the match
Yet, Mike James (12 points at 5/12 on shots, 4 assists and 3 interceptions) was entitled to two tries to help AS Monaco win. First about thirty seconds from the end of the game, where he decided to take a very long 3-pointer from a standstill, without success. Then on the last possession of the match, allowed by a forceful passage caused by Alpha Diallowhere this time he did not have the opportunity to try his luck, getting tangled in the defense of former Strasbourg player Matt Mitchell and Dovydas Giedraitis.
Two missed opportunities which are ultimately logical in view of the poor performance offered by AS Monaco as a whole. The Roca Team could almost consider themselves lucky to be able to claim victory at the surprise leader of the EuroLeague, who did not even need a Sylvain Francisco at the top (1 point at 0/9 on shots and 4 assists with 6 lost balls) to achieve a 6th victory in 7 matches
The collective cohesion of the Monegasques, seen in Serbia at the start of the week, unfortunately did not continue for them in Lithuania. Without unity and without skill (2/19 at 3-points), the Roca Team was logically trailing at the break (34-25). Returned in the second half, through Jordan Loyd notably (18 points at 5/10 on shots), ASM however shot itself too many times in the foot (3 losses in the last two minutes) to be able to leave with the victory. “We made some bad choices at the end of the match,” recognized his trainer Sasa Obradovic. We are always trying to improve. »
It is therefore with the record of 4 victories and 3 defeats that AS Monaco ends its week of warm atmospheres, with the regret of saying that a 2-0 week was largely achievable.
