Wasn’t that ultimately what Asvel came to Paris for this week? Overwhelmed in the Adidas Arena at Porte de la Chapelle on Thursday during the first round of the Betclic Élite semi-finals (81-94) – which are played in the best of 5 matches – the Lyon team delivered a good copy more interesting Saturday late afternoon, against a much less inspired opponent. She was still forced to fight hard in a breathtaking final, the fault of a huge comeback from the Eurocup (and Leaders Cup) champions, who took too long to wake up to maintain the home advantage in this series.
One statistic alone summed up for a long time the complete change in appearance at the start of the semi-final: at the break of this match 2, Paris had only scored 37 points, compared to 33 in the first quarter of the first round alone. While Tuomas Iisalo’s men had folded their opponents two days ago (33-11, 10th), they returned to the locker room with a disbursement of 7 units to make up (37-44, 20th).
11/35
Paris has long paid the high price for a big mistake at three points. In the end, the capital club finished 11 out of 35 (31.4%) in the exercise.
From the start of the game, Joffrey Lauvergne (15 points) and his team set the tone in defense, against the locals who were seriously lacking in skill. Without TJ Shorts (17 points at the break, 23 in the end), they would probably have gone down sooner and given up. The restart after half-time changed nothing in the scenario since Asvel even opened up a big gap (39-54, 25th), taking advantage of the interior domination of its players.
Hifi sounded the revolt, in vain
While Pierric Poupet’s protégés seemed to be heading towards a victory that was as logical as it was deserved in the content proposed, everything almost changed at 71-57 (33rd) in favor of Asvel. The start of Nadir Hifi, held at 11 points until then (27 in the end) woke up the audience who then saw Paris return to contact in less than 4 minutes, with an improbable 14-2 which reignited the debates . On a three-point shot for which Hifi – summoned in order to begin the preparation of the French team for the Paris Games – has the secret, his team even took the lead (78-77, 37th), without instilling doubt in the heads of the Rhone.
117-87
The final collective evaluations do not reflect the close score of this part: Asvel finished at 117 evaluation (6 players at 10 or more), compared to 87 for Paris (24 for Hifi).
The two teams embarked on an intense battle, during which Villeurbanne leader Paris Lee (23 points) weighed heavily, particularly on the free throw line. He and Hifi each exchanged three points on the penalty line (82-81; 82-84; 85-84) before the first named allowed his team to definitively take the lead (85-86, 40th). By missing a shot at 85-87, he provoked an offensive rebound from Mbaye Ndiaye (4 points) which then allowed his team to win at the finish (85-89).
The two teams will meet next Tuesday, in Villeurbanne, for a match 3 that is both promising and extremely important: its winner will then obtain two match points to conclude, during match 4 (still in Villeurbanne) or match 5 (in Paris).
