By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
As the season progresses, Monaco is playing better and better. Sasa Obradovic‘s side has proved to be in great form, notching a third straight win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
The Roca Team had control over Partizan Mozzart Bet for most of the match, securing their 14th victory of the season with a final score of 85-70.
Mike James led the winning side with 19 points, seven assists and five rebounds for a PIR of 31. He also tied with Nando De Colo as the second best scorer in EuroLeague history, with a total of 4,383 points.
“I don’t look at it that way; we are trying to maintain good momentum, stay healthy, in a good rhythm, and ultimately get the victory. The win is more important than my personal achievements. When I retire, I will look back and be proud of those statistics. Now we have many more games to win and try to conquer the EuroLeague,” James commented on his achivement after the win over Partizan.
Mam Jaiteh equaled his season-best with 14 points, while Elie Okobo contributed 13 points for the victorious team.
On the opposing side, Kevin Punter had his best game of the season, scoring 28 points with a Player Index Rating (PIR) of 31. However, Fran Kaminsky was the only one to come close with 17 points.
Sasa Obradovic praised his players for defensive effort.
“Great game, especially defensively from our side. Despite Punter scoring a significant number of points, some tough shots, we did an excellent job as a team. We knew that Partizan would never give up, but we are progressing from game to game, and it’s obvious that we are reaching a higher level. A fantastic, intense, true playoff game that everyone could enjoy,” said the Monaco coach at the press conference.
Zeljko Obradovic commented on the fact that Monaco had 70 shots, while his team had 50.
“I would like to congratulate Monaco on a well-deserved victory; they played good, aggressive basketball. They dominated in rebounds, and we made a lot of turnovers, as many as 16, with only one steal… If you look at the statistics, they had 20 more possessions… That’s incredible for a basketball game. That’s it; they deserved the win because they were better,” Obradovic said.
Photo: euroleaguebasketball.net/euroleague