While Vassilis Spanoulis's side bounced back, the visitors' road woes continued
Monaco clears minds to end skid, beats Bayern with defense
Rungtynių ataskaitos
3 Minutė skaityti
Regular Season
Round 17 of 38
Regular Season
AS MonacoASM
10377
FC Bayern MunichBAY
Overview
w
l
l
w
w
l
l
l
l
l
AS Monaco came up with a strong defensive showing on Friday night to snap a frustrating two-game losing skid and clear their collective minds ahead of the holiday period.
Monaco put on a show with FC Bayern Munich in town, romping to a 103-77 win and improving to 10-7, including a 6-2 mark at home.
Bayern started the game better and opened a 2-11 lead before finding itself 8-17 up, but Monaco went on a 20-2 run to open a nine-point lead. Monaco started the second half with a 10-2 spurt and then finished off Bayern for good with a 20-3 surge later in the third quarter.
“We haven’t been playing our best basketball, but we had to hang our hat on defense and execute on offense and share the ball. And that’s what we did tonight and we scored over 100 points. It’s important to keep this momentum,” said Alpha Diallo, who collected 12 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.
“Defensively I think we guarded the ball well and guarded the three-point line well because they are good shooters. And I am happy we came out with the win.”
The Bayern game came after Monaco wasted a 17-point lead in the third quarter in losing at home to Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 86-92 in Round 15 and then lost 85-73 to Kosner Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz earlier in the week.
Monaco really shared the wealth offensively against Bayern, with seven players scoring in double figures. The team’s index rating of 147 set a new club record and was the season high for any EuroLeague team this season.
Elie Okobo scored 18 points, Nikola Mirotic had 16, Mike James totaled 14 points and 6 assists, while Kevarrius Hayes chipped in 11 points, Daniel Theis added 10 points, and Matthew Strazel tallied 10 points and 5 assists.
“We had two losses in the previous two games and we said we had to clean our mind and kind of get a fresh start. And we did a great job,” said Okobo, who also dished out 4 assists. “Our main focus was defensively. They didn’t score many points and everybody was involved – hustle plays, everybody fighting for each other. And we came out with a win at home before Christmas. It was very good for us.”
Head coach Vassilis Spanoulis was happy about how his team responded after the two losses.
“I think we played good basketball. We came back with a good performance. After the first 5-6 minutes, we dominated the game and we were great on both ends of the floor. We have to keep playing like this, keep improving and keep being consistent,” Spanoulis said.
Bayern, for its part, probably is thrilled this game is over. This was the seventh consecutive road game in the EuroLeague for the team, and Gordon Herbert’s men lost all seven to fall to 5-12. Bayern, which has lost eight games in a row, had a couple of close games in that stretch – dropping two games by two points, one by one point and another by seven points. Bayern also has played three of its last four games in German competitions on the road.
Bayern shot just 31.0% from long range, was outrebounded 41-25 and allowed Monaco to shoot 71.4% on two-pointers and 40.0% from long range. Oscar da Silva paced Bayern with 13 points.
“We played a good first seven minutes and then they dominated us the last 33 minutes. Their physicality, their ability to make shots really hurt us,” said Herbert.
There could be some relief coming soon as Bayern play six of its next seven games at home. Maybe the men from Munich will soon have a chance to clear their minds as well.
