The Monegasque had a perfect double-round week, winning at Olympiacos on Wednesday and at home to Panathinaikos on Friday
Nikola Mirotic enjoys milestone evening as Monaco claims another statement win
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 8 of 38
Regular Season
AS MonacoASM
9284
Panathinaikos AKTOR AthensPAO
Overview
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Two of the EuroLeague’s leading title contenders went to battle on Friday night with AS Monaco hosting Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, and a statement-making 92-84 victory for the home team – which led for the last 33 minutes and rarely looked like letting the game slip – also contained an historical footnote as Nikola Mirotic climbed above Juan Carlos Navarro into fifth place on the all-time EuroLeague scoring charts.
The Monaco forward’s 9 points on the night took him to a career tally of 4,159, overtaking Barcelona legend Navarro (4,152) and now only trailing former Real Madrid teammate Sergio Llull (4,243), current coach Vassilis Spanoulis (4,455), Nando De Colo (4,938) and fellow Monaco star Mike James (5,407).
Mirotic has achieved many great things in basketball during his 17-year professional career, including the EuroLeague MVP award in 2021-22, a EuroBasket crown with Spain in 2015, an Olympic silver medal the following year and several domestic league and cup trophies.
But so far the biggest prize up for grabs in European basketball has continued to elude him: a EuroLeague crown.
He has come close on several occasions, including losses in title deciders for Real Madrid against Olympiacos Piraeus in 2013, and for FC Barcelona at the hands of Anadolu Efes Istanbul eight years later.
After a couple of seasons of failing to make the playoffs with EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, now Mirotic is back on the books on a genuine title contender following his summer move to last season’s beaten finalist Monaco – and at the age of 34, time is starting to run out for more opportunities to taste EuroLeague glory.
So Friday’s victory was a milestone evening not really because Mirotic climbed a place in the all-time scoring charts, but more so because it completed a hugely impressive perfect double-round week for Monaco against two Greek heavyweights: an 87-92 road triumph at Olympiacos on Wednesday; a 92-84 home victory over Panathinaikos on Friday.
Not bad for three days of work, and a clear signal that Monaco is a major threat again this season.
That achievement was not lost on coach Vassilis Spanoulis, who admitted to EuroLeague TV that he was proud of his players after their perfect Greek Week. “We played two great games,” he said.
“We played 80 minutes, great games. We dominated today, we played very good basketball, unselfish, we shared the ball, 25 assists. Great defenses, stayed on the game plan, executed the game plan, concentration.”
Backcourt leader James, however, was a little more circumspect, clearly acknowledging the reality that we are only one month through the regular season with six more to come.
“They’re a really good team, and we were trying to get some momentum and build off the win earlier in the week, so it’s good to come out here and play a good game,” James began, before cautioning: “We’ve got two wins now but you never know what will happen later in the season, so we’ll just try to build off it now and see what happens next week.”
That measured tone is understandable considering how much basketball is remaining, but Friday’s game demonstrated the awesome depth of Monaco’s roster as James – who had 13 points and 8 assists – and Mirotic (9 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block) were just two of the eight Monaco players to record a double-digit PIR.
Elie Okobo’s drives to the basket, Matthew Strazel and Nemanja Nedovic’s three-point shooting, Kevarrius Hayes’s power in the paint along with Jaron Blossomgame and Alpha Diallo’s versatility were also key aspects of the win.
And with talent like that by his side, maybe this will finally be Mirotic’s year.
