Already beaten two days earlier against Partizan, Monaco lost again in Belgrade on Thursday evening (91-79), against Red Star, coached by its former Roca Team coach Sasa Obradovic. Thanks to a huge second half, Paris, long battered, returned to success after four defeats by winning in a landslide against Valencia (90-86) at home.
Paris is smiling again, Monaco falls again in Belgrade. Missed reunion with Sasa Obradovic for Monaco, for whom the Belgrade air was definitely not successful this week. Two days after biting the dust on the Partizan floor, the Monegasques suffered another defeat (91-79), still in the Serbian capital but this time against Red Star, Thursday during the 11th day of the Euroleague.
In a match between two teams who had been stopped in their tracks on the last day after having signed a good series of victories, the good start of a still very visible Mike James (18 points, 7 assists) and his teammates had allowed the Monegasques to return to the locker room with a slight lead (56-52). Monaco didn’t keep it for long, unfortunately.
Obradovic’s players, Ognjen Dobric (22 points), Semi Ojeleye (12 points) and Jared Butler (20 points) in the lead, recovered very quickly. This basket from Matthew Strazel, which had allowed Monaco to briefly regain a point lead, except, the Red Star took control and never let go.
After this three points from Strazel, Nikola Kalinic, Butler and Ojeleye offered a comfortable mattress in the last minutes to the Belgraders, well helped it is true by the failures at the worst moment from Elie Okobo (yet 16 points in this game), Strazel and Alpha Diallo. A final long distance shot from Kalinic definitively ruined the last hopes of the Roca Boys, still on the verge of the podium two weeks ago and who fell to 8th place.
Hifi and Herrera relaunch Paris in money time
If the players of the Principality collapsed at the end of the match against the Red Star, the Parisians, for their part, ended their meeting at the Adidas Arena in a cannonball against Valencia to obtain a victory, certainly painful but oh so important (90-86).
Paris in fact remained on four defeats, including two at home, before returning to victory this Thursday at home against the Valencians who had long pushed Francesco Tabellini’s players. The visitors’ clear lead at the break (47-39) also suggested that the French champions were heading towards a fifth loss in a row, and the third in a row in Paris.
This was obviously not to the taste of Nadir Hifi and his family. Thanks in particular to the French international, his team’s top scorer, with 17 points (as well as 5 rebounds and 5 assists) but also to a very good Derek Willis (15 points, 5 assists), Paris gradually came back on the heels of its opponent before taking the lead in the final moments on a three-point basket from Hifi, then imitated by Sebastian Herrera.
The Parisians, still 14th in the standings, scared themselves again but were rewarded upon arrival for their superb burst of pride during a second period which they clearly dominated (53-37).
