By Le Figaro with AFP
Published yesterday at 11:11 p.m., Updated yesterday at 11:33 p.m.
Mike James, l’homme providentiel. Baptiste Autissier / Baptiste Autissier / Panoramic
The reigning French champion beat Paris this Saturday evening (92-85) for the 19th day.
A month after winning largely at home in the first leg (84-62), Monaco did it again against Paris Basket in front of their Bercy crowd on Saturday (92-85) during the Elite clash between the French champion and leader and one of its most serious competitors.
ASM (16 victories for a single defeat) has at the end of the 19th day five victories ahead of the Parisians (3rd, 12/6) and only seems to be competing with Bourg-en-Bresse ( 2nd, 14/5) for first place in the regular season.
And if it has struggled in the Euroleague since the start of 2014 (three defeats in four matches including a heavy one on the field of Panathinaikos on Thursday), it maintains the margin in the championship, at least on this Paris which has conceded its largest total of points since the start of the league season. Tuomas Iisalo’s team has been stalling since the start of winter (three losses in five Elite matches since the start of December) but, while it had never competed on December 3 on the Rock, it has this once been in it until the end.
She seemed to be heading towards another big defeat by suffering a slump lasting a quarter of an hour. Between the end of the first period, which the “Roca Team” finished with a 19 to 6, notably by finally finding the address at long distance (4/5 while it was at 1/14 until then ), and the last five minutes.
Trailing by twenty units (35th), Paris woke up in the wake of Nadir Hifi (23 pts) to sign a 15-0 and come back to five points less than two minutes from the end (86-81).
But Monaco came to its senses, thanks in particular to its two trump cards behind: Mike James (19 pts), who returned the winning shot stopping the bleeding (89-81), then immediately Jordan Loyd (17 pts) restored (at least temporarily) back problems which caused him to miss the match in Athens on Thursday.
