The 27-year-old forward pulled off a complete performance in the semifinal against Olympiacos
Alpha Diallo did it on both ends to help Monaco get over the hump
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Alpha Diallo showed during the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Semifials just why he is such an important player for AS Monaco.
In a 68-78 win over Olympiacos Piraeus that guaranteed Monaco's place in the championship game, the fourth-year forward was absolutely everywhere, finishing with a team-high 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal.
He was almost unstoppable inside the arc, going 10 for 12 on two-pointers, but sometimes numbers can’t fully portray his contribution on the court.
“The coach and all the team ask a lot from [Diallo],” Daniel Theis said on the EuroLeague's post-game show. “He’s guarding the best player on offense. He’s having more and more responsibilities. We’ve also been asking a lot of him on offense, being aggressive. I think his confidence right now is sky-high.”
Diallo set the tone from the off, playing all 10 minutes of the first quarter and scoring 8 of his team’s 17 points. More importantly, he provided his team with an unmatched energy on defense, helping get deflections, diving for loose balls and being the key to Monaco effectively disturbing Olympiacos’s ball circulation.
The Reds smoothly sharing the rock was what inspired their record-setting 27-2 run in the third quarter of the 2023 semifinal between the two teams. Monaco ended up losing that game, but this time they were having none of it as they laid the ghosts of the past to rest.
“We’ve watched that game a lot of times. I certainly did,” Diallo admitted. “Just coming out here and learning from our mistakes. We got over the hump. Olympiacos was a big hump for us in the past seasons.”
This was the fifth game in a row where Diallo recorded a double-digit number in scoring after netting 21, 16, 13 and 11, respectively, in the last four playoff games against FC Barcelona.
Should he manage to produce a similar display against Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in Sunday's title decider, Monaco will have nothing to fear.