Barcelona completes sweep of Monaco, 80-70

FC Barcelona won its fourth straight game on Friday night, downing the visiting AS Monaco 80-70 on at Palau Blaugrana. It could prove to be a key win in a race for home-court advantage in the playoffs, as Barcelona swept Monaco and improved to a 17-8 record in third-place. The visitors, meanwhile, dropped to 15-10 in fifth place.
Barcelona controlled things for much of the night, and it was able to overcame its offensive struggles in the third and early part of the fourth quarter to register the win. Tomas Satoransky finished with 15 points, while Jan Vesely paired 12 points with 7 rebounds and Cory Higgins also scored 12. Mike James had 14 points for Monaco, with Jordan Loyd and Alpha Diallo both adding 13 points apiece in a losing effort.
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A pair of triples from Alex Abrines helped Barcelona open a 12-6 lead early on. Diallo got Monaco going, and Elie Okobo took it to the rim to cut the deficit to just 1 point, but Nikola Kalinic hit from downtown and Mirotic scored from close range to make it 24-18 after 10 minutes. Higgins scored twice and Vesely had a three-point play and a big dunk to open a 33-22 margin. Loyd answered with a pair of three-pointers, but Rokas Jokubaitis hit a three of his own and Vesely had two more dunks to help the hosts maintain a double-digit margin, 50-39, at the break.
Things changed in the third quarter, with both teams struggling offensively. A three-pointer from Nicolas Laprovittola opened a 64-52 advantage, but the visitors scored the last 5 points of the third quarter, including a three from Jaron Blossomgame, and the first 5 points of the fourth as a James floater cut it to 65-62. Barcelona was held scoreless for almost six minutes, but Vesely and Higgins gave the hosts an offensive spark with five minutes left to play. Diallo hit a three, but Satoransky answered with a three-point play as Barcelona found a way to close it out.