2021-22Regular SeasonRound 17
ALBA Berlin 92
AS Monaco 84
December 22, 2021 CET: 20:00
Local time: 20:00 MERCEDES-BENZ ARENA

Sikma, Lammers lift ALBA over Monaco

ALBA Berlin got back to winning ways by downing AS Monaco 92-84 on Wednesday night in the German capital. ALBA snapped its three-game losing streak and pushed its record to 6-11, the same as Monaco which has now lost seven of its last eight games. ALBA used a strong finish to the second quarter to take a 40-30 lead into halftime and controlled the game in the second half before withstanding a fourth-quarter run from Monaco. Ben Lammers paced the hosts with 18 points and Marcus Eriksson netted 15, Maodo Lo 12, Jaleen Smith 10 and Luke Sikma returned from injury to post 8 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals. Mike James had 25 points and 8 assists for Monaco and Donatas Motiejunas scored 14 of his 23 points in the first quarter. Alpha Diallo added 11 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists and Paris Lee scored 10 in defeat.

Monaco scored the first 8 points of the game, including back-to-back triples from Motiejunas and Ouattara. Lammers with a jumper and Eriksson with a triple got ALBA going, but a three-point play from Motiejunas made it 9-15. Johannes Thiemann and Eriksson hit back-to-back threes to tie it. Motiejunas scored twice more inside to get his tally to 14 points and give Monaco a 17-19 lead. ALBA finished the first quarter in front 23-21 after a short jumper from Oscar da Silva and a fastbreak layup from Louis Olinde.

Ouattara had a three-point play and Donta Hall scored inside for Monaco early in the second, but Lammers dunked and Jaleen Smith nailed a three-pointer to make it 32-26. The visitors were held without a basket for almost 3 minutes before James snapped a 0-7 run, but a triple from Lo opened a 35-28 lead and a last-second long-range shot from Lammers to end the first half made it 40-30 at the break.

Dwayne Bacon scored from long range and Motiejunas from close range, but Lammers scored 7 points, including a dunk-plus-foul for a 49-37 advantage. James had a pair of jumpers and Motiejunas a pair of layups as the visitors closed within 51-46. da Silva and James traded three-point plays before Eriksson banked a jumper and nailed a 9-meter triple to lead 63-51. Diallo snapped a 7-0 run with a three-pointer, but jumpers from Tamir Blatt and Smith increased the margin to 69-56 after 30 minutes.

Paris Lee and Smith traded triples to open the fourth quarter and Lee added 5 more points, including another triple. Olinde's dunk snapped a 0-9 run, but Lee took it to the rim and James made a floater to get Monaco within 76-74. After Zoosman and Diallo exchanged three-pointers, Lo scored 5 points - a driving layup and a layup-plus-foul - to open an 86-78 lead with 2 minutes to go. James gave hope to the visitors' with a three-pointer, but ALBA closed the game out.

ALBA sets two-point shooting club record

ALBA is better known for its three-point shooting and entered this game having made just 50.2% of its two-pointers, which was third-lowest in the EuroLeague. But the Berliners finished this game at 71.8% two-point shooting, the club record in EuroLeague play. ALBA had never before shot better than 70% in a EuroLeague game, but in this one the team missed only 9 two-point shots on 32 attempts. ALBA made all of its 7 two-pointers in the first quarter, then missed 3 two-point shots in each of the last three quarters. Considering that both teams shot below 34% from long range, ALBA's 23-for-32 shooting on twos made the difference in this contest.

ALBA's second quarter keys the victory

In a high-scoring affair, the key was the second quarter during which ALBA held Monaco to just 9 points. The visitors were held to just 4-for-10 shooting on two-pointers and 0-for-6 on threes and ALBA forced 4 turnovers in that quarter. It resulted in the hosts turning a slim deficit into a 10-point halftime lead. Monaco was forced to play from behind the rest of the game and ALBA never relinquished the lead. The visitors made a run in the fourth quarter and got within 2 points, but the halftime lead gave ALBA confidence to never lose control of the game and secure victory.

Another superb all-around performance from Sikma

Luke Sikma returned to action after missing three games, but he never missed a beat. Even though he made a rare appearance off the bench and played a below-average 23 minutes, he was at his usual all-around self. Sikma finished with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals and drove the Monaco defense crazy with his vision that set up his teammates with dunks, easy layups or open three-pointers. It was the second time this season Sikma had at least 8 rebounds and 7 assists in a game.

Luke Sikma - ALBA Berlin - EB21
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: RADOVIC, SRETEN; JIMENEZ, BENJAMIN; ISGUDER, SINAN
Attendance: 1973
By Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin23172923
AS Monaco2192628
End of Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin23406992
AS Monaco21305684
ALBA Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 LO, MAODO 27:44 12 3/6 1/6 3/3   1 1 5   2     2 2 8
1 DA SILVA, OSCAR 15:53 7 3/4 0/2 1/3 1 3 4 1 1   1 1 2 2 8
3 SMITH, JALEEN 11:31 10 2/2 2/3     3 3           1 1 12
6 DELOW, MALTE 2:43                   1     2   -3
8 ERIKSSON, MARCUS 26:12 15 1/1 3/8 4/4   1 1 1         1 2 13
16 NIKIC, KRESIMIR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
19 OLINDE, LOUIS 14:42 6 3/4 0/2   1 3 4 1   1 1   3   5
32 THIEMANN, JOHANNES 16:30 5   1/2 2/4 1 2 3 2 1 2     2 4 8
43 SIKMA, LUKE 23:04 8 2/4 0/2 4/4 3 5 8 7 2 2   2 1 3 19
45 BLATT, TAMIR 12:16 2 1/1           2 1 1     2   2
50 ZOOSMAN, YOVEL 25:18 9 3/3 1/2     5 5 1 2       2 2 16
55 LAMMERS, BEN 24:07 18 5/7 1/1 5/5   3 3   1 2 2   3 3 20
Team             1 1     1          
Totals 200:00 92 23/32 9/28 19/23 6 27 33 20 8 12 4 3 21 19 108
        71.9% 32.1% 82.6%
Head coach: GONZALEZ, ISRAEL
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
AS Monaco
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 DEMAHIS, RUDY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 LEE, PARIS 19:18 10 1/2 2/4 2/2   3 3 2 2 3   1 1 4 13
8 BACON, DWAYNE 22:16 3 0/3 1/3     2 2 1 1       5 1 -2
10 THOMAS, WILL 26:14 4 1/2 0/2 2/2   1 1 1         4 2 1
11 DIALLO, ALPHA 34:11 11 2/8 2/4 1/2 1 5 6 6 1 1 1 3 1 3 14
12 MOTUM, BROCK 3:30                     1       1
20 MOTIEJUNAS, DONATAS 17:46 23 9/12 1/1 2/3 1 1 2           2 2 21
24 OUATTARA, YAKUBA 20:21 6 1/3 1/1 1/1 1 4 5     1     1 1 8
33 ANDJUSIC, DANILO 9:29   0/1 0/3             1       2 -3
45 HALL, DONTA 13:04 2 1/1       2 2   1 2 1   3   1
55 JAMES, MIKE 33:51 25 10/11 1/6 2/3 1 2 3 8   2     2 6 31
Team           2 3 5     1         4
Totals 200:00 84 25/43 8/24 10/13 6 23 29 18 5 11 3 4 19 21 89
        58.1% 33.3% 76.9%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, SASA

Head Coaches

GONZALEZ, ISRAEL
ALBA Berlin

"I think the game was a matter of energy. Both teams played with low energy, they might be tired from last week and all the game. I feel we made a push little more than them, running fast breaks, and I think that was the key because we could make some easy baskets on fastbreaks. Part of our philosophy is to play full effort, 40 minutes, and play like a team, sharing the ball, passing, moving. That is our goal in the EuroLeague, try to do it better every time, and hopefully, the results come as well."

"It was a strange game in terms of energy – at least in my point of view. We are coming from a marathon of games over the past week and a half and the one day more in preparation made a big difference. We could find a bit more energy than Monaco. We scored from running and made important baskets from fast breaks. In the end, Lee and James made difficult shots. They are very talented. The game became closer, but we defended and rebounded well on the last shots. I am really happy about this win."

OBRADOVIC, SASA
AS Monaco
"Congrats to ALBA, they deserved to win. We definitely need to find our consistency. Of course, changing coaches is never easy. Sometimes you need time to adjust to the new ideas, maybe new philosophy, new way of playing. I could see certain improvements today, but it was not enough. In the second half, we made a lot of tactical mistakes. A lot of small things that made the difference in the end for ALBA. We had our chances to come back, maybe even to get a lead, but ALBA used their experience, the way they used bonus shots and getting to the line and that was essential. We suffered in the end because of the small things. ALBA has certain problems with small-ball lineups and a couple of times when we played zone was a good change for us. They did not find an open look, and we scored which brought us in good rhythm. But then again, we made mistakes, gave them a lot of easy layups and on the other end, we did not use the same chances to score. Some easy layups under the basket maybe cost us."

Players

THIEMANN, JOHANNES
ALBA Berlin
"This win in the EuroLeague feels especially good. For now, that was probably the last game in front of our fans, so we definitely wanted to gift them this win tonight.“
ERIKSSON, MARCUS
ALBA Berlin
"We know they are an extremely talented team, they score a lot of points. We managed to get a 10-point lead at halftime, then they started coming back a little bit. I think the key of the game is that we were able to stick together at that moment, even when they made their runs, and in the end, we managed to get a win. The first half of the regular season has gone pretty quickly. I think it is really important to be ready for every game. It goes by pretty quickly. We hope we can play even better in the second half of the season."
LAMMERS, BEN
ALBA Berlin
"I think we brought a lot of energy. They are obviously a good team and they were able to come back a little bit, but we were able to pull it out at the end. They are a good team, Mike James just started making a bunch of shots, that is always dangerous, but we were able to stay calm and pull it out. The whole fun of the EuroLeague is that you get to play against really talented players [like Donatas Motiejunas] every day, so that was a good time."
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