Two of the strongest rosters in the EuroLeague will go to battle in a best-of-five series
Breakdown: AS Monaco vs. Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
Article
6 Mins read
The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs are stacked with fascinating matchups wherever you look, yet the series between the third-placed AS Monaco and sixth-placed Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul should be one of the most intriguing. Three wins separated the two teams at the end of the regular season, with Monaco finishing with a 23-11 record and Fenerbahce going 20-14, but they split games when they met earlier this season.
Fenerbahce turned its campaign around following the decision to part ways with Dimitris Itoudis and appoint Saras Jasikevicius ahead of Round 14, with the Turkish side going 14-7 the rest of the way after starting 6-7. However, three defeats in Fenerbahce’s last four EuroLeague games put a dampener on things heading into the playoffs, even if the only win in that run saw Nigel Hayes-Davis set the competition’s single-game scoring record with a 50-point night against ALBA Berlin.
Monaco had a similar record in that same period, posting a 15-6 mark from Round 14 onwards, but it had a far more positive end to the regular season than its playoff opponent as Sasa Obradovic’s men went 12-1 in their last 13 games. That strong finish to the campaign allowed Monaco to have the joint second-best record in the EuroLeague, yet a regular-season sweep by Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens meant the Greens finished in second place and caused the Monegasques to settle for third.
Their playoff history
Playing in just its third season in the EuroLeague, Monaco’s trajectory has been remarkable, to say the least. It made the playoffs in its first campaign, 2021-22, finishing as the seventh seed, before falling to second-placed Olympiacos Piraeus in a memorable five-game series that saw NBA superstar Kevin Durant attend Games 4 and 5. While it was a disappointing end for Monaco, reaching the postseason and pushing a club like Olympiacos all the way was a sign of things to come.
Last year, Monaco ensured that a potential Game 5 would take place on its home floor after finishing fourth, which set up an exciting series with fifth-placed Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv. Once again, a fifth game was required with the series knotted at 2-2, only this time Monaco was able to come out on top and reach its first-ever Final Four. In Kaunas, Coach Obradovic’s squad found themselves ahead 29-41 at halftime during their semifinal clash with Olympiacos, but a nightmarish 27-2 third quarter saw the Reds take control and eventually secure a 76-62 victory. Monaco did defeat FC Barcelona in the third-place game, 78-66, to end its EuroLeague game on a bit of a high.
Overall, Monaco’s postseason record stands at 6-6 and it will now get to face off against Fenerbahce for the first time in playoff action. Obradovic shares the same record as Monaco, having only tasted postseason basketball with the principality club.
Fenerbahce, meanwhile, has a lot more experience when it comes to playing in late April and early May. The Turkish club has been to the playoffs on nine occasions in the past, though it took two series defeats – in 2004-05 to CSKA Moscow and 2007-08 to Montepaschi Siena – before it could reach its first Final Four, which came in the 2014-15 campaign. In total, Fenerbahce has reached the Final Four on five occasions, all of which came with Zeljko Obradovic sitting on the bench. Over a five-year stretch between 2015 and 2019, Fenerbahce played in the championship game three times and won its first EuroLeague crown in 2017.
Some good news for Fenerbahce fans is that it seems to have a Final Four specialist as its current head coach, with Saras Jasikevicius having guided Barca to European basketball’s showpiece event in each of the last three years. He also took underdog Zalgiris Kaunas to the Final Four in 2017-18. In the playoffs, Jasikevicius boasts a 13-8 record and will fancy his chances of reaching the Final Four for a fourth straight year, albeit with a different team.
Fenerbahce’s overall postseason record is 20-18 and it has bowed out of the playoffs on its last two postseason trips, losing 3-0 to CSKA in 2020-21 and 3-2 to Olympiacos last season. Should the series go to a Game 5, it will be played on Monaco’s floor courtesy of being the higher seed in this matchup.
The things to look for in this series
Given that Fenerbahce finished the regular season as the best three-pointing team in the EuroLeague, making an average of 11.2 per night on a league-high 28.7 attempts, Monaco will need to have its perimeter defenders locked in. Tarik Biberovic has become one of the competition’s biggest threats from long distance this season, knocking down 37 of his 65 three-point shots (56.9% 3FG), but he is not the only weapon that Fenerbahce can call upon.
Of course, there’s Scottie Wilbekin, who has made 102 three-pointers on 39.7% shooting, while Tyler Dorsey (48 threes, 45.7% 3FG), Hayes-Davis (58 threes, 38.7% 3FG) and Marko Guduric (32 threes, 30.5% 3FG) all made more than 30 triples during the regular season. While not circled on the scouting report for their three-point shooting, Nick Calathes and Sertac Sanli have already shown what they can do from distance against Monaco, knocking down 3 triples apiece over the two regular-season games with the Monegasque side. Only Wilbekin has made more with 4. As such, Fenerbahce will be looking for its marksmen to do plenty of damage from deep.
Monaco, on the other hand, ranked in the top five in two-pointers made (21.8 per game), free throws made (14.5 per game) and offensive rebounds (11.3 per game). Quite the contrast to Fenerbahce, with the Monegasques instead leaning into its strengths inside the arc.
Leading the way in terms of two-pointers made for Monaco is not a center and not even a forward. It is Mike James, who is the only guard inside the top 10 in the EuroLeague in this statistic, having converted 133 times from two-point range, the eighth most of any player. Donatas Motiejunas is the next best player in this regard for Monaco, making 95 two-pointers, followed by Alpha Diallo with 88, John Brown with 82, Elie Okobo with 77, Jaron Blossomgame with 73 and Donta Hall with 68. Hall is 71st overall, meaning that Monaco makes up 10.14% of all players in this statistic. Impressive stuff.
Even with free throws, James led the EuroLeague with 132 free-throw makes and Okobo was 18th with 86. Despite being guards, they like to go among the trees, something Fenerbahce needs to be wary of.
It will be interesting to see how these two teams and their contrasting styles match up, but it should be a lot of fun. Make sure to catch all the action from this series on EuroLeague TV, starting on April 24.