With its "team chemistry", Monaco gives a first lesson to Asvel

• Never totally in the game, Asvel has just lost for the launch of the Betclic Elite final, Wednesday evening against AS Monaco (74-82).

• Tony Parker's players immediately lose home advantage, while the second best-of-five game in this series will continue on Friday (8:30 p.m.) at the Astroballe.

• The intriguing first quarter of Asvel (17-29) occupied the post-match analyzes of TJ Parker and Youssoupha Fall.

At the Astroballe,

" T-shirts

were released on Wednesday evening in a boiling Astroballe (5,560 spectators).

Understand, for those who are not familiar with the exploits of the Bulls of "MJ", the quest for three consecutive titles for Asvel, champion of France in 2019 and 2021, when no one was crowned in 2020 due to the Covid- 19.

But the least we can say is that AS Monaco immediately grabbed the status of favourites, winning with authority (74-82) for the first round of a best-of-the-best series. five games.

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A 2-9 in the first three minutes, and even an offensive orgy in the first quarter (17-29, 10th), with a 5/7 at three points and a beating on the rebound (13 to 3, 7 offensive rebounds at 0), showed what separated the 14th (and penultimate) in the Euroleague from a huge collective at the gates of the Final Four of the event (2-3 in the quarters against Olympiakos).

“We just let them unroll their basketball”

"We don't start a final like that, plague TJ Parker.

It's as if it was not our team at the start of the match.

29 points conceded is way too many, so of course there is anger.

“An anger that we could also feel in the words of Youssoupha Fall, despite the calm voice of the Senegalese giant (2.21 m): “We made the match difficult because we were too soft and even too nice to them.

We clearly failed in the rebound, for example, and we just let them unroll their basketball.

It's a question of mentality, you have to be as tough as possible”.

Asvel was almost never on Wednesday, to the point of being rolled with a point at -19 during the second quarter.

And this before a spectacular reaction driven by the energy of Youssoupha Fall and Marcos Knight on the return from the locker room (45-49, 22nd).

“We have a team that is fighting, which has come back from a gap of 19 points, tries to positive TJ Parker.

But we have to stop waiting until we are in the hard to play basketball.

We are in the final and we have to make sacrifices to use our faults when necessary and cut the fast game.

It is necessary to rectify the situation from the first minute on Friday.

»

The Okobo-Jones duo well held by the Monegasque defense

The serene grip of the foreign quartet Mike James-Alpha Diallo-Dwayne Bacon-Will Thomas (who combined 58 points in Villeurbanne) even raises a question: what if the

targeted by Asvel were to change by the June 20th in

and first rapid victory in Betclic Elite for the Roca Team?

“I don't think this series will be easy for us at all, assures the Monegasque Alpha Diallo (16 points and 4 rebounds).

We knew that Asvel would have big spells sometimes because they are a very good team.

“Problem: his prolific tandem of backs Elie Ekobo-Chris Jones had to settle for accumulating 29 points at 8/20, and the 29-year-old American even left before the end of the match, hit in one knee.

“Everyone is involved offensively”

"We know that it can be a long series, so it's up to us to get our ideas straightened out," urges Youssoupha Fall.

But on the Roca Team side, Sasa Obradovic knows that he has (re)found “a team chemistry” with this match fully mastered or almost.

“It was a completely different match from what we had shown so far in the play-offs, appreciates the Serbian coach.

It was more structured, with everyone involved offensively and a big defensive game, as was the case in the Euroleague.

So many good points that TJ Parker would dream of listing in turn on Friday evening.

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