A small tactical tweak by coach Vassilis Spanoulis helped the home team find consistency throughout the opening 20 minutes. His starting five featured Monaco’s core from last season: Matthew Strazel, Mike James, Blossomgame, Alpha Diallo and Daniel Theis.
There were no more lineup experiments. Spanoulis went with the trusted group that led Monaco to the 2025 EuroLeague Championship Game. The team started strong on both ends of the court, jumping out to a 14–6 lead behind 8 quick points from Strazel.
Valencia answered with a 2–8 run sparked by Josep Puerto, who scored 5 early points.
That’s when summer signing Nikola Mirotic entered the game off the bench – the first time this season he hasn’t started – and gave Monaco’s second unit a boost. He brought balance and consistency, scoring 5 straight points and helping Monaco take a 27–22 lead after the first quarter.
Mirotic became the first player to reach double digits after hitting a corner three, capping off an 8–0 Monaco run to start the second quarter.
After scoring just 34 points in the first half against Virtus, Monaco dropped 57 on Valencia – tying the club’s record for most points in a first half. Coach Spanoulis’s men shared the ball well, recording 12 assists, just five fewer than their total in Bologna, and shot 20 of 30 from the field in the first half alone.
“It was a good game for us,” Spanoulis said at the post-game press conference. “We responded after a not [that] good game at Virtus. Especially in the first half, we played maybe our best game.”