Familiar foes ready Friday's French derby

AS Monaco hosts LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne of Round 7 in a showdown for regional pride, not to mention a key early-season victory. After Monaco made the Final Four last season and ASVEL finished last, the visitors' EuroLeague icon Nando De Colo acknowledges, "Monaco is a great team. We have to give them a lot of respect." Nonetheless, ASVEL comes off its first win of this season, on the road in comeback fashion, under new head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco. Monaco bounced back from an 0-2 start to win its last four games in a row, but at the same time, head coach Sasa Obradovic knows that "the pressure is all on us." In the last game of Round 7 on Friday night in the principality, one of them will walk off with an extra-meaningful triumph.