By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Coming off nine losses in a row, Zalgiris Kaunas upset AS Monaco, 83-82, at Salle Gaston Medecin Thursday.
Lukas Lekavicius put the visitors in front for the first time with 16.8 seconds left in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 26 contest. His former Panathinaikos teammate Mike James had the chance to save the day for La Roca Team but did not connect at the buzzer.
“We knew James will shoot. We played good defense, he missed. Okay. Fine,” mentioned Joffrey Lauvergne following his 13-point showing, “We need some games like this. Sometimes it will go in, sometimes will miss. I think we played very well in the second half.”
Former Connecticut standout Niels Giffey went for 15 points. He was 3/3 from the field and 7/7 from the free-throw line facing his former coach at ALBA Berlin and current boss of Monaco, Sasa Obradovic.
“It feels good. It is the first road win for us in the EuroLeague,” he commented on finally getting the job done away from Kaunas, “It was a very long stretch of losses for us, so the excitement is there. it was very frustrating to go on the road and have losses, so a win is a very good feeling.”
Arturas Milaknis generated 14 points, including 11 in the third period. Janis Strelnieks (hamstring) and Mantas Kalnietis (ankle) both stayed on the injury list.
The team coached by Jure Zdovc jumping to 4-19 damaged the French side’s Playoff hopes more than anything else. The Lithuanian champions sit 8.5 games outside the top eight spots of the standings with 11 games left on the 2021-22 Regular Season schedule.
“They well-deserved to win the game. They played well, they played like a team. We did not play as a team,” pointed out Obradovic, “When you just use your talent and do not play team basketball, you give a chance to someone else who is doing this.”
“We talked in the halftime. The defense became much better, especially in the last quarter. All the players gave something extra, also players from the bench,” the winning head coach Zdovc added his point of view, “To beat Monaco here, you must play really good and you must have nine or 10 players to have a good day.”
Monaco was forced down to 12-13 after three wins in a row across all competitions. James and Dwayne Bacon shared the game-high 18 points. Leo Westermann (thigh) remained sidelined.
Photo Credit: EuroLeagueBasketball.net