The all-time assists leader guided his team to an important victory
Nick Calathes back to his best to boost Monaco past Real Madrid
Άρθρο
3 Χρόνος Ανάγνωσης
Nick Calathes is one of the most decorated players in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague history, leading the competition’s all-time charts in both assists and steals.
Naturally, plenty of excitement was generated by his arrival at AS Monaco this past summer, allowing him to team up with all-time scoring king Mike James and another duo of talented guards, Elie Okobo and Jordan Loyd, to create what looked like a dream backcourt.
The opening half of the season didn’t follow that script, however, as Calathes was sidelined by a knee injury which prevented him from making his Monaco debut until Round 19, and then understandably needed time to recover his rhythm and gain familiarity with his new teammates.
On Friday night, though, Calathes showed that he is still more than capable of playing an important role for a title-chasing team, leading Monaco to a big 77-73 victory over Real Madrid with a double-double of 12 points and 10 assists.
Calathes also showcased his ball-thieving skills with a pair of steals, and proved his competitive edge by grabbing 3 rebounds and committing 4 fouls. Perhaps most significantly, though, the 35-year-old spent 33 minutes and 30 seconds on the floor – more than any other player – to demonstrate firstly that he has returned to full physical fitness and secondly that he’s earned the total trust of coach Vassilis Spanoulis.
Although that heavy workload was partly necessitated by injuries to teammates Loyd and Okobo, Calathes’s experience and knowhow was vital in managing the tempo, containing Real’s potentially explosive offense and allowing his team to never fall behind after moving ahead early in the second half.
In fact, it should have been an easier win as Monaco led by 10 points with less than three minutes remaining, before committing a series of errors to allow Real to keep fighting until the very end.
And rather than dwelling on his strong personal contribution, Calathes preferred to focus on the improvements his team need to make when he reflected on the action. “We’ve got to be able to close it out better,” he told EuroLeague.TV
“Obviously we made some stupid mistakes, and if we want to win big games we’ve got to be solid.”
However, the veteran playmaker did acknowledge his team’s achievement in downing a fellow title candidate as he added: “Real Madrid is Real Madrid. They’ve been playing great basketball.
“Obviously they’ll be in the playoffs and be contenders like they always are. But every game for us is like a final, and we’ll see how it goes throughout these last ten games.”
With Calathes getting back to his best, Monaco looks in great position to use those remaining games to seal a top-four finish.