Βy Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In a physical game that ended with Monaco winning, Tomas Satoransky was ejected at the start of the fourth period with the score being 80-61.
Satoransky used his elbow against Matthew Strazel, and a fight between the two teams almost broke out.
Tempers were tamed quickly, and Vassilis Spanoulis in the press conference also tried to keep the tone down; however, he stated that this play was “outside of basketball”.
As the Greek coach of Monaco said when he was asked about the physicality of the game and the incident: “It’s the playoffs, we play at home and have to be physical. As for the Satoransky case, I respect him a lot, but what he did it’s something out of basketball. It’s not good. It’s different to play physically, and it’s different to try to hurt something. I know how good a person he is and how good a basketball player he is. I think it was a moment of frustration that’s not good to see in the games”.
Playoffs got that tension at 100!
Satoransky’s foul was too much, and MJ came flying in to stand up for his teammate. Benches buzzed, refs reacted, and Sato was sent packing!
pic.twitter.com/ccxOQChNzO
— SKWEEK (@skweektv) April 23, 2025
In the question of a possible suspension, Spanoulis simply added: “It’s not my job, it’s the job of others”.
It has to be noted, however, that former Real Madrid and current Efes center Vincent Poirier tweeted a different opinion, calling Satoransky “a dirty player”.
Dirty player doing dirty things
— Vincent Poirier (@viinze_17P) April 23, 2025
Speaking about defense, Spanoulis was asked about Terry Tarpey and also about the effect of Daniel Theis, praising his players: “Terry was very good, like Daniel and others; he was a star in his role. Any team needs to have this kind of player. He gave us a lot of energy, and he was ready. I put him in four, and he knew all the plays of the team from this position, without putting him in the four during practice. It was just my instinct to put him there, he knew everything, and this shows how concentrated he was and how much concentrated he is in basketball”.
Still the series is just starting and Spanoulis despite this was the first time in the playoffs that Monaco gets the win in Game 1, was already focused on Game 2: “It doesn’t mean anything, it’s just 1-0. Every game is important and the series is long. The important thing is to play good basketball, we are already preparing the second game”.