James, Monaco sent a message on a milestone night

AS Monaco blew past the visiting Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 107-79 on Thursday night and in the process set a couple of a club records, while seeing its superstar guard reach a milestone of his own.
Monaco tied its club scoring record with 107 points, which is also the club's new scoring mark in a non-overtime game. The final margin of victory is also the biggest since Monaco joined the league in the 2021-22 season.
In the process, Mike James became the fourth player ever, and the fastest, to reach 4,000 career points. He was 7 points short entering the game, but reached the milestone in the first quarter and finished with 24 points in just over 21 minutes on the floor, without even playing in the fourth quarter.
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The way James was hot, the entire team was hot.
Monaco shot 12-of-22 (54.5%) from three-point land, and had 14 offensive rebounds despite only 28 missed field goals. The team also had 23 assists and just 9 turnovers.
"It was a lot of fun", James said after the game. "We shot the basketball extremely well, we played one of the best basketball games since I've been here, really."
And that says a lot for a team that reached the playoffs two seasons ago, in James's first campaign with the club, and then went to the Final Four last year.
But just two weeks ago things did not look so bright, after Monaco scored a total of 125 points in the first two rounds combined.
"We needed this one, because we previously got our butts kicked in this arena", said Monaco forward John Brown. He was referring to a 59-83 beating to the hands of Virtus Segafredo Bologna in Round 2.
And while that defeat looked worrisome, only 14 days later things look very bright for Monaco.
Brown provided energy with his 11 points and 8 rebounds, Elie Okobo played with ease to a tune of 17 points and 6 assists, and Kemba Walker had his first double-digit scoring game, finishing with 10 in 17 minutes.
Add to the equation that Jordan Loyd is nearing his return to the floor, and this Monaco looks the part of the title contender we all thought it will be before the season started.