By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
MILAN, Italy – Performing the 28-point blowout victory against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Round 5, AS Monaco followed by getting the on-the-road 72-66 win in Milan’s Mediolanum Forum. After losing to Real Madrid, ALBA Berlin, and Maccabi Tel Aviv – in the rescheduled Round 2 -, this is Milan’s fourth straight defeat, being last in the standings with a 1-5 record.
Mike James, who left the Italian team in the summer of 2019, when Ettore Messina sat on Milan’s bench, was his team’s highest scorer with 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. “I started off kinda slow, and in the second half, I tried to be more aggressive. It’s always important to win on the road”, the MVP of the game commented. Jordan Loyd, instead, added 4 points and 3 boards in his first game of the season.
Alpha Diallo made his presence felt by following the former CSKA Moscow superstar in the boxscore with 13 points and 4 rebounds. “Mike had a big shot down the stretch. Big time away win from us. We had a really good reaction from the first half, Milan is a tough team and they’ll figure out how to react”, the forward commented in the post-game interview.
Asked what made the difference tonight, Sasa Obradovic made it clear. “Our defense. In the second half, we made an amazing effort on that”, he first said. “We deserved to win the game, even though there wasn’t the best quality. We could play much better than what we showed. We ended the game pretty sloppy, without big intensity. We’re still struggling in offense, but we found a way to finish the game”, he added in the post-game press conference.
On the home side, Devon Hall found his best performance of this year’s Regular Season, providing 15 points off the bench. Nikola Mirotic had a poor scoring night but still came close to a double-double with 9 points and 9 rebounds. Shavon Shields added 17 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, but lost too many possessions (6).
“The turnovers killed us”, Ettore Messina said in the flash interview following the loss. “It’s a game in which we competed, some players were tired from the game on Tuesday. All the time we forced them to turnovers and contested shots, they had a couple of fantastic plays from Mike James who made crucial baskets. They won, we continue to work”, the Italian head coach added in the press conference.
Kemba Walker and Terry Tarpey weren’t part of the encounter for AS Monaco, while Ettore Messina decided to sideline Kevin Pangos for a coaching decision. Billy Baron wasn’t part of the game still recovering from his long-term injury. Ismael Kamagate and Guglielmo Caruso also didn’t make the roster for tonight’s game.
Tough night for Milan… and for the refereeing trio
The Italians started things off with back-to-back three-pointers by Nikola Mirotic and Stefano Tonut, followed by Maodo Lo’s reversed layup after Mike James lost the ball for the early 8-0 run at 7:12 on the clock. Johannes Voigtmann provided the play of the night by breaking Petr Cornelie’s ankle with 2:28 to go, and Ettore Messina’s team closed the first quarter up by five points (18-13).
The second quarter started with the former Real Madrid power forward hitting from downtown to bring Monaco down by two (18-16), but Devon Hall scored consecutive three-pointers to re-establish the more comfortable six-point lead (24-18). However, Sasa Obradovic‘s team tied at 28-28 with 3:15 before halftime as Mike James banked in a stepback three-pointer. AS Monaco’s superstar went out of the court on three fouls – one technical – with 2:17 to go; Milan closed the first half up 37-35 through controversy.
Something weird happened with 00:11 seconds to go in Milan-Monaco’s second quarter. Kyle Hines’ second free throw was balling on the rim, and Donta Hall clearly touched the ball before it went in. Only one point was awarded.
— Cesare Milanti (@cesaremilanti) November 2, 2023
AS Monaco opened the third quarter with a six-point run (41-37), forcing Ettore Messina’s timeout with 7:08 on the clock. Milan scored its first bucket of the second half at 5:43 left until the remaining quarter with Alex Poythress, but the guests continued to push and managed to enter the fourth leading by four points (52-48) after Mike James beat the buzzer with a stepback three-pointer in the left corner.
Stefano Tonut tried to shake things off for the red-and-white side to open the last ten minutes of the game with a three-pointer, and the team’s captain Nik Melli followed by example with a dunk with 5:34 minutes left. A layup in transition by Mike James following Donatas Motiejunas’ steal on Shavon Shields gave Monaco the biggest lead of the game thus far at 63-57 with 4:10 on the clock.
The 29-year-old small forward scored five straight points to keep his team afloat, and Elie Okobo lost a crucial ball with 1:32 before the final buzzer. However, Shavon Shields itself lost once again the possession, and Alpha Diallo gave his team the three-point lead (67-64) in the final minute of the encounter. The former Baskonia player reduced the deficit to one point (67-66) after Ettore Messina’s timeout at 35:60 seconds left, but Mike James scoring from deep and Jaron Blossomgame dunking in transition gave Sasa Obradovic’s team the final victory.
On the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 7, Milan (1-5) will host Valencia (5-1) on November 9 at 20:30 CET, while AS Monaco (4-2) will play at home on the following day at 21:00 CET against Gianmarco Pozzecco’s ASVEL (1-5) – who broke its 18-game EuroLeague losing streak with the away victory against Zalgiris Kaunas – in the first French derby of the year.
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague