Vassilis Spanoulis's squad improved to 2-1 on the season while Milan dropped to 1-2
With Mirotic struggling, Monaco’s other superstars pull off the Italian Job
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 3 of 38
Regular Season
EA7 Emporio Armani MilanEA7
7982
AS MonacoASM
Overview
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It was a night that was supposed to be all about Nikola Mirotic, but instead it was Daniel Theis and later a combination of Elie Okobo and Alpha Diallo who stole the headlines as AS Monaco grabbed a 79-82 win at EA7 Emporio Armani Milan on Thursday night.
Theis, in particular, was at his dominant best in his first return to Unipol Forum since making his Monaco debut there at the end of February. This time, though, the Germany international was able to come out on the winning side.
In both the first and second quarters, Theis posted a PIR higher than anyone else as he went into the halftime break with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block. He kept charging in the third, moving to 16 points and 10 boards, but foul trouble prevented him from putting his fingerprints on the final frame.
“I think Daniel grabbed all of our rebounds,” Okobo joked afterwards. “He was amazing, helping us sitting in the paint, fighting, grabbing rebounds, contesting layups. Overall it was a very good performance for him. Even when he was in foul trouble, he stayed locked in. That’s why we need Theis on this team.”
Instead, the fourth quarter was carried to a large extent by Okobo and Diallo. It took two and a half minutes for the first score by either team in the period, a Jaron Blossomgame reverse layup that gave Monaco a 62-68 advantage, then Okobo dipped into his bag on offense to make things comfortable at 65-73. Diallo knocked down his first three-pointer of the night and Mike James – like Mirotic and Nemanja Nedovic, playing at his former home – scored a mid-range jumper to open the first double-digit lead of the game, 69-79.
All this occurred with Mirotic sitting on the bench. Although it seemed like coach Vassilis Spanoulis was keeping him fresh ahead of a tight finish to the game, the second and third quarters saw Milan purposefully go at its former star, who sat on 3 fouls after 30 minutes and had been limited to just 6 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. It just wasn’t his night.
A shocking comeback appeared to be on the cards when Marko Guduric became a one-man battering ram, reeling off 6 straight points to make it interesting at 75-79, so Spanoulis quickly turned to Mirotic to give Monaco something a little different on offense. Guduric’s personal run then extended to 8-0, making it 77-79, but that’s when Mirotic made one of the game’s most decisive plays, grabbing an offensive rebound off Matthew Strazel’s missed three-point attempt and being fouled by Bryant Dunston. Even though he split free throws, it was enough to give Monaco confidence (77-80).
That wasn’t the last big play of the game, however. After Devin Booker knocked down a turnaround jumper at the end of the shot clock, Shavon Shields raced up the floor looking to give Milan just its third lead of the contest and its first since the second quarter, but Diallo raced back to get effectively the game-winning block. Strazel then hit a couple of free throws (79-82) and that was that.
From being up 10 points with 4 minutes to go, Monaco was so close to letting this win slip away. Instead, it moves to 2-1 and has now won back-to-back games after recovering from its Round 1 upset at home to Zalgiris Kaunas by defeating Dubai Basketball in Round 2 and now Milan in Round 3.
“The most important thing now is to find consistency,” Coach Spanoulis said in the post-game press conference. “We played badly against Zalgiris, we played good against Dubai, bad in the French League, better today. We need to find consistency.
“We have to improve on defense a lot and we have to improve our ball movement, how we share the ball, and our spacing. I think we will improve more during the season. We will see that this team, especially in the second half of the EuroLeague season, will go far.”
For all the excitement surrounding Mirotic’s return, which saw him awarded a framed Milan jersey bearing his name before tipoff, it was Monaco’s other superstars who pulled off the Italian Job on Thursday night. Last season’s EuroLeague finalist will be hoping to make it two wins from two in Italy when it takes on Virtus Bologna at the start of the double-round week next Wednesday night.
