Name: Mike James: 'Coach Spanoulis has done a great job'
Channel: Euroleague Basketball

AS Monaco guard Mike James spoke to EuroLeague TV after his team beat ALBA Berlin in Round 19 of the 2024-25 EuroLeague season.

Mike James: 'Coach Spanoulis has done a great job'

AS Monaco guard Mike James spoke to EuroLeague TV after his team beat ALBA Berlin in Round 19 of the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season.

ALBA Berlin v AS Monaco (2025-01-02T19:00:00.000Z)

ALBA Berlin-AS Monaco | RS Round 19 Highlights | 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague

Olympiacos BC had a huge second half to beat Zalgiris Kaunas, having trailed by 12 points at halftime before winning 85-92.

Olympiacos’s defense fueled second-half comeback at Zalgiris

Twenty minutes into Thursday’s game at Zalgirio Arena, everything indicated that 2025 would not start on a positive note for [Olympiacos Piraeus](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/euroleague/teams/olympiacos-piraeus/oly/). 

Boosted by the ever-buzzing home crowd, [Zalgiris Kaunas](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/euroleague/teams/zalgiris-kaunas/zal/) hit the ground running, with [Sylvain Francisco](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/euroleague/players/sylvain-francisco/007975/) cooking on offense. The hosts fired on all cylinders, making 11 of 17 (64.7%) from beyond the arc, with Francisco going 5-for-6 from deep. The Zalgiris guard ended the first half on 20 points - just 2 points shy from his career high in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

Zalgiris led 52-40 at halftime, but a visit to the locker room was enough for Olympiacos to regroup and change the chip on both ends.

"In the first half, they did whatever they wanted," game MVP [Sasha Vezenkov](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/euroleague/players/sasha-vezenkov/003469/) told EuroLeague TV after the game. "They scored 52 points. Yes, they scored tough shots, but we were not physical and didn’t open the game as we wanted to."

Olympiacos Piraeus forward Sasha Vezenkov spoke to EuroLeague TV after his team beat Zalgiris Kaunas in Round 19 of the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season.

Sasha Vezenkov: 'Second half was our best defense this year'

The Reds flipped the switch after the break, with Vezenkov netting 19 of his game-high 24 points in the last two quarters. Olympiacos may have outscored Zalgiris 33-52 after the break, but it was its defense that allowed the visitors to complete the comeback.

"I think that in the second half, we had our best defensive game so far this season," Vezenkov added. "We said that even if we’re losing by 12 points, we can win this game possession by possession. We played tough, put pressure on the two handlers that Zalgiris have and are really talented and I think we played a great second half to win the game."

In fact, Francisco scored just 2 points in the second half, where he went 1-for-2 from inside the rainbow and 0-for-4 from downtown. Olympiacos’s solid defense forced him to 3 second-half turnovers, with Zalgiris finishing the game with 19 errors.

"It really started with our defense in the second half and that gave us flow and rhythm on defense and that turned into flow and rhythm on offense," [Thomas Walkup](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/en/euroleague/players/thomas-walkup/008855/), who netted a season-high 13 points including a big triple on crunch time, told EuroLeague TV.

More importantly, Olympiacos made the most of Zalgiris’s mistakes by netting 33 points off turnovers. Physicality on the defensive end of the floor and a tactical switch by head coach Georgios Bartzokas allowed Olympiacos to extend its winning streak to four games.

<center>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/bwinMVP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bwinMVP</a> of the game, Sasha Vezenkov! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OlympiacosBC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#OlympiacosBC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeAreOlympiacos?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WeAreOlympiacos</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TogetherWeFight?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TogetherWeFight</a> <a href="https://t.co/svIls6eCH8">pic.twitter.com/svIls6eCH8</a></p>&mdash; Olympiacos B.C. (@Olympiacos_BC) <a href="https://twitter.com/Olympiacos_BC/status/1874911789970063366?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 2, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

"The defense was completely different in the second half,” Bartzokas said in the post-game press conference. "\[We had\] more physicality. We changed some tactical things like \[introducing\] hedge-out instead of switching defense in every screen with the 4 and then they missed lots of shots. They made 3 triples in the second half and the last one was when the game was over."

Having opened 2025 with a hard-fought road victory, Olympiacos will look to extend its unbeaten streak with a potential home win against FC Bayern Munich. One of the finest offenses in the league is set to visit the Reds next week, but in this second-half defensive effort against Zalgiris, Olympiacos has the blueprint that should be followed against the Germans.

Game News

The Reds contained a red-hot Francisco by tightening their defense to clinch fourth straight win

Zalgiris Kaunas v Olympiacos Piraeus (2025-01-02T18:00:00.000Z)

Nikola Mirotic and Zach LeDay were Olimpia Milano's two star performers as the Italian side ended its three-game losing run by beating LDLC ASVEL 66-75 in Round 19.

Mirotic, LeDay help Milan snap losing streak with win at ASVEL, 66-75

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan got back to winning ways in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague by downing LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 66-75, which saw the Italian side end its three-game losing streak and cause the French outfit to suffer a second straight defeat. Ettore Messina’s squad improved to 10-9 on the season, while Pierric Poupet’s men dropped to 8-11.

Nikola Mirotic and Zach LeDay combined to devastating effect for Milan, combining for 35 points – Mirotic had 18 and LeDay 17 – as ASVEL struggled to contain the two star forwards. They were also the visiting team’s leading rebounders, with Mirotic grabbing 8 boards and LeDay 6. ASVEL’s Nando De Colo, who surpassed Vassilis Spanoulis to become the EuroLeague’s all-time leader in made free throws by going a perfect 8 for 8 (De Colo now has 1,135 to Spanoulis’s 1,131), scored a game-high 22 points. Theo Maledon had 18 points, but committed 7 turnovers and fouled out in the fourth quarter. ASVEL’s other scorer in double digits was Andre Roberson with 12.

Game Videos

Roberson got the scoreboard moving with a step-back jumper from mid-range, but Milan soon got itself into a 6-9 lead thanks to 5 points from Mirotic. Maledon kept up his impressive form of late and moved to 7 first-quarter points by scoring 5 straight for ASVEL to tie the score at 11-11, though he had to receive some treatment and was held on the bench for the final 3:12 minutes of the opening frame. De Colo took over for ASVEL, also scoring 5 in a row, but Neno Dimitrijevic and Ousmane Diop both split free throws to ensure it was 19-19 after 10 minutes.

Diop got his own miss and scored a layup to give Milan an early advantage in the second period, then Maledon returned to the court with 8:10 minutes to go before the break. LeDay began to put his fingerprints on the contest with a pair of jump hooks, good for a 20-25 score, yet ASVEL kept fighting back through Maledon and made it a one-point game at 26-27. Milan was in front for the entire quarter after Diop’s opening score, but Mirotic ensured it was a four-point margin at the interval, 32-36, by scoring the visitors’ last 5 points of the half.

It seemed as though Milan was going to keep building on its momentum when Freddie Gillespie scored off a bullet pass from Mirotic, 32-38, which tied a game-high six-point lead for Messina’s troops. Roberson made a couple of baskets either side of a Paris Lee triple to reenergize the hosts, however, and Melvin Ajinca’s three-point play gave ASVEL the lead at 42-40. It was then the turn of De Colo to step up, with the veteran guard equaling and then surpassing Spanoulis for the most free throws made all-time, in an individual nine-point spurt that ensured it was a 51-46 score. Nico Mannion’s three-pointer off the glass and Armoni Brooks’s tip-in made it 51-51 after 30 minutes.

LeDay split free throws to restore the lead to Milan at 51-52, then De Colo responded with a one-legged fadeaway jumper, 53-52. That proved to be the last time ASVEL led on the night. Mannion’s layup and Giampaolo Ricci’s deep two, which was downgraded from a three, saw Milan go 53-56 up, but Maledon tied things up at 56-56 with a triple. Then, Shavon Shields struck from three-point land, Mirotic grabbed Shields’s airball to score, and Ricci drained a three to put Milan in a comfortable position at 58-64. LeDay effectively put the win on ice with back-to-back three-point makes, which swelled the lead to 60-70 – the first time it had reached double digits on the night. Leandro Bolmaro went 1 for 2 to set a new game-high lead of 11 points, 60-71, before the final score ended up being 66-75.

The visiting team’s forward duo combined for 35 points on the night

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne v EA7 Emporio Armani Milan (2025-01-02T19:00:00.000Z)

Bolomboy bends the rim with vicious a two-hander!

Bolomboy and Miller-McIntyre at it again! Motorola Magic Moment

 Bolomboy bends the rim with vicious a two-hander!

Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz v Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (2025-01-02T19:30:00.000Z)

Giedraitis steals the ball in his own half and races down the court to dunk, drawing a foul in the process!

One-man show from Giedraitis! Motorola Magic Moment

Giedraitis steals the ball in his own half and races down the court to dunk, drawing a foul in the process! 

AS Monaco remained atop the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season standings by downing ALBA Berlin 90-105 in the German capital in Round 19 on Thursday

Monaco beats ALBA again, 90-105 

AS Monaco remained atop the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season standings by downing ALBA Berlin 90-105 in the German capital in Round 19 on Thursday. Monaco improved to 13-6 in the standings while ALBA dropped to 3-16. 

Mike James led the winners with 23 points and 7 assists. Matthew Strazel added 18 points. Jaron Blossomgame scored 17, Elie Okobo 13, Jordan Loyd 12 and Donatas Motiejunas 11. Matt Thomas and Yanni Wetzell paced ALBA with 17 points apiece. Tim Schneider and Matteo Spagnolo each added 13 for the hosts.

James attacked the baseline for a layup on the game’s opening possession before Thomas got ALBA on the scoreboard with a triple. David McCormack threw down a monster slam and Will McDowell-White drilled a triple as ALBA went in front 8-5. Vitto Brown and Strazel heated up as Monaco raced back in front. Strazel’s second three made it 10-15 midway through the opening quarter. Nick Calathes made his Monaco debut and promptly blocked Wetzell from behind. James went off for 8 straight points – including Calathes's first 2 assists of the season – to give Monaco a double-digit lead. Schneider ended the ALBA drought and Spagnolo added a jumper. Nevertheless, Monaco continued to roll as Blossomgame converted a three-point play on the break and the visitors finished the quarter up 21-30. 

Wetzell beat the shot clock with a layup early in the second quarter. Loyd erased that with a jumper that Okobo followed with a three-pointer for a 23-35 Monaco lead. Motiejunas stepped up with a put-back layup and Strazel's wild four-point play broke the game open, 23-41. Spagnolo swished consecutive mid-range jumpers and Elias Rapieque added a power layup, but Loyd and Brown kept Monaco comfortably ahead, 29-46. James buried a floater in traffic, Spagnolo and Okobo traded layups before McCormack's put-back basket brought ALBA within 33-50. Georgios Papagiannis took over with an alley-oop slam and a tip-in, boosting Monaco's lead to 35-55 at halftime. 

 

Schneider buried a corner triple soon after the break and Thomas bettered Motiejunas's layup with a four-point play to bring ALBA within 42-57. James found Blossomgame for a backdoor layup and Strazel improved on McCormack's put-back slam with a bomb from downtown for a 44-61 Monaco lead. Thomas struck twice from beyond the arc and got help from Schneider to give ALBA hope at 55-66. Okobo stepped up with a driving layup and matched Wetzell's dunk with free throws. Schneider kept pushing the hosts and Wetzell dunked again to make it a single-digit game, 71-70. After Loyd sank a three-pointer, Rapieque and Okobo traded layups. Wetzell scored in penetration for a 65-75 ALBA deficit. James and Loyd boosted the visitors' lead to 67-79 at the end of the third quarter.

Strazel nailed his fourth three-pointer early in the fourth quarter and banked in another one to boost Monaco's margin to 69-85. Motiejunas scored twice around the basket, Jonas Mattisseck answered from downtown and Malte Delow carried ALBA to within 73-89. Spagnolo scored in penetration and Mattisseck insisted from beyond the arc, causing Monaco to call timeout at 79-89. After Blossomgame buried a three-pointer, Procida answered with an alley-oop layup and Spagnolo sank a triple off the glass to bring ALBA as close as 84-92. Procida took over with a put-back layup that James bettered with a corner triple. Wetzell and Blossomgame traded free throws, James split attempts and Thomas got ALBA within 90-98 with 1:46 left. Blossomgame sealed the outcome with a bomb from downtown, as ALBA never recovered after that.

Jaron Blossomgame stood out in crunch time to stop ALBA's comeback


Monaco beats ALBA again, 90-105

Bolomboy flushes it down after a sublime assist from Miller-McIntyre!

Bolomboy with on the alley oop! Motorola Magic Moment

 Bolomboy flushes it down after a sublime assist from Miller-McIntyre!

Olympiacos BC forward Sasha Vezenkov spoke to EuroLeague TV after his team beat Zalgiris Kaunas in Round 19 of the 2024-25 EuroLeague season.

Zalgiris Kaunas-Olympiacos Piraeus | RS Round 19 Highlights | 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague

 Zach LeDay spun past Nando De Colo, but Shaquille Harrison got up to block the Milan forward’s shot.

Harrison blocks LeDay! Motorola Magic Moment

  Zach LeDay spun past Nando De Colo, but Shaquille Harrison got up to block the Milan forward’s shot.

Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem started 2025 by coming back from 15 points to beat Aris Midea Thessaloniki 90-85 at Samokov Arena in Bulgaria and snap a three-game losing skid. 

Jerusalem fights back to down Aris, 90-85, and snap skid

Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem started 2025 by coming back from 15 points to beat Aris Midea Thessaloniki 90-85 at Samokov Arena in Bulgaria and snap a three-game losing skid. Jerusalem trailed 44-59 in the third quarter, but fought back to improve to 8-5 in Group B.

Jared Harper poured in 29 points on 16-of-17 free-throw shooting plus 5 assists for a performance index rating of 38 in the win. Khadeen Carrington scored 15 points and Justin Smith and Tarik Phillip both added 14 points for the victors. Aris faces a real uphill battle to reach the playoffs after falling to 3-10 with its sixth loss in the last seven games. Sharife Cooper and Trey Woodbury both had 17 points, Darral Willis collected 16 points and 10 rebounds and new addition LJ Figueroa also tallied 16 points in the loss.

The game started with a real back and forth with eight lead changes in the first 4 minutes as Joshua Roberts scored 6 points - the last basket starting a 0-6 spurt to send Aris ahead 9-14. The visitors' offense dried up for nearly 3 minutes and Jerusalem reclaimed the lead, 16-14. There were three more lead changes with Willis scoring all 5 points for an 18-19 Aris lead after 10 minutes. 

Woodbury started taking advantage of his size difference by going to the basket for Aris’s next 6 points, re-establishing a 5-point lead at 20-25. Yovel Zoosman and Harper drained triples and 5 Carrington free throws put Jerusalem back up 33-32. Two three-pointers in the final 38 seconds of the first half had Aris up 37-41 at the break.

Aris drained 3 straight triples as part of a 0-11 run early in the second half as the advantage grew to 15 points. Five points from Cooper had the visitors up 44-59 only to have Jerusalem fight back to within single digits at 51-59. Harper’s three-point play made it 57-64. Aris was holding strong and was ahead 63-71 after three quarters.

Jerusalem continued its surge in the final frame with the first 7 points to cut the gap to 70-71 after nearly 3 minutes. Jerusalem finally evened the game at 75-75 on a Harper triple, but Aris did not break initially despite being held scoreless for 4 minutes. Willis free throws had Aris up 80-83. Zoosman answered with a three-pointer to tie it again and Carrington’s free throws made it 85-84 with 38 seconds to play. Harper followed with a great defensive play with 25 seconds left, drawing a charge on Cooper for the latter's fifth foul and then burying 2 more free throws to give Jerusalem the lead 87-84 with 23 seconds to go. Vassilis Toliopoulos managed just one of three foul shots for the visitors and then Zoosman converted 3 free throws with 13 seconds remaining to finish the game.

A great performance by Jared Harper rallied Jerusalem from a 15-point third-quarter deficit

Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem v Aris Midea Thessaloniki (2025-01-02T18:00:00.000Z)

A great vision from De Larrea in transition to feed Brimah for an alley-oop dunk.

De Larrea to Brimah alley-oop! Magic Moment

 A great vision from De Larrea in transition to feed Brimah for an alley-oop dunk.

Umana Reyer Venice v Valencia Basket (2025-01-02T19:00:00.000Z)

Mitrovic executes the fastbreak with a big dunk after a behind-the-back pass from Yago!

Showtime from Yago and Mitrovic! Motorola Magic Moment

 Mitrovic executes the fastbreak with a big dunk after a behind-the-back pass from Yago!

Will McDowell-White misses put David McCormack fixes it with a huge put-back dunk!

McCormack's put-back slam! Motorola Magic Moment

 Will McDowell-White misses put David McCormack fixes it with a huge put-back dunk!

Olympiacos Piraeus extended its unbeaten run to four games by defeating Zalgiris Kaunas 85-92 at Zalgirio Arena on Thursday night

Olympiacos rallies to down Zalgiris, 85-92

Olympiacos Piraeus extended its unbeaten run to four games by defeating Zalgiris Kaunas 85-92 at Zalgirio Arena on Thursday night. The hosts fired on all cylinders before the break to take a 52-40 lead into the second half, where Olympiacos bounced back by tightening up its defense and outscoring Zalgiris 33-52 to turn the game around. With this win, the Reds improved their record to 13-6, with Zalgiris dropping to 10-9.

Sasha Vezenkov led all scorers with 24 points, 19 of which came in the second half. Shaquielle McKissic netted 17, Evan Fournier had 14 and Thomas Walkup bagged a season-high 13 points. Sylvain Francisco paced Zalgiris with 22 points, Deividas Sirvydis scored 12 and Bryant Dunston netted 10, with Lonnie Walker and Alen Smailagic adding 11 each.

Zalgiris started strong, with Walker and Dunston scoring inside before back-to-back triples from Francisco gave the hosts a 10-4 lead. Francisco netted his third three to take his tally to 12 early points, but Walkup scored twice in the paint to cut the difference to 18-10. Kostas Papanikolaou and Vezenkov netted from deep, but Edgaras Ulanovas responded with a four-point play to restore a 22-16 lead. Then, Walkup bagged his fourth bucket of the first quarter to make it 22-18 after 10 minutes.

Walker got Zalgiris going in the second quarter by scoring his team's first 6 points, including a four-point play to restore a 28-20 lead. Brady Manek and Francisco nailed back-to-back threes, but McKissic responded with one of his own, trimming the deficit to 34-28. McKissic took his tally to 9 points off the bench with a layup before an alley-oop dunk from Nikola Milutinov made it 36-32. Smailagic also opened his account from inside before drilling a triple that extended Zalgiris’s lead to 41-32. A Walker triple was followed by Fournier’s three-point play before a three from the Olympiacos forward slashed the difference to 44-40. Yet, Smailagic nailed a midrange jumper before triples from Sirvydis and Francisco restored a 52-40 lead at halftime, with Zalgiris’s point tally being tied for the third-highest scoring first half of any team in the league this season.

Dunston and Vezenkov traded scores inside twice to open the third quarter before a Walkup layup and a couple of free throws from the Olympiacos forward cut the difference to single digits, 56-48. Four unanswered points from Fall were followed by an open layup from Francisco, but Fournier netted a three and Vezenkov scored inside to bring the visitors within 60-58. Two buckets from Smailagic sandwiched a Fournier triple before Sirvydis made 2 of 3 from the line to make it 66-61. Then, Sirvydis nailed a tough triple, but Fournier scored a turnaround jumper that cut the difference to 71-67 heading into the closing quarter.

Olympiacos opened the fourth with a 0-13 surge, as Vezenkov and McKissic nailed a triple each and Milutinov added 4 points to his tally to put their team ahead for the first time, 71-80. Dunston pulled off a tough finish inside to end Olympiacos’s run before a triple from Arnas Butkevicius cut the difference to 76-80. After Vezenkov and Sirvydis traded buckets, a layup from McKissic and a triple from Walkup restored a 78-87 lead. Zalgiris didn’t give up, with Sirvydis scoring inside and Butkevicius drilling a triple that trimmed the deficit to 83-87 with 1:31 left on the clock. Ignas Brazdeikis didn’t manage to convert on either of the next two possessions and Vezenkov made free throws to seal the outcome. 

The Reds outscored the hosts 33-52 after the break to grab their fourth straight win

Hall rocks the rim as he keeps dominating the paint!

Big one-hander from Donta Hall! Motorola Magic Moment

 Hall rocks the rim as he keeps dominating the paint!

Trefl Sopot-Buducnost VOLI Podgorica | Round 13 Highlights | 2024-25 BKT EuroCup   

Trefl Sopot v Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (2025-01-02T17:00:00.000Z)