Could Wembanyama lead Levallois over Monaco?
The 2022–23 Pro A season is in its final phase, Monaco representing the Euroleague and Metropolitans 92 led by the “alien” Victor Wembanyama will meet in a best-of-five format, the host of the first match will be Salle Gaston Medecin in Monaco on June 10.
La Roca Team managed to win the regular season without problems with 26 victories and 8 defeats. There followed 2 playoff series in which they were the only team that did not lose a single match, in the quarterfinals were two hard victories against Strasbourg 85-83 and 88-84. In the semifinals with Bourg, they raised the level of play and won the three matches much easier: 96-79, 105-99 and 85-71. Sasa Obradovic has an experienced team at his disposal and rested different players in each match, the team that defeated Barcelona in the match for 3rd place in the Euroleague has many stars in its composition: Mike James, Jordan Lloyd, Donatas Motiejunas, Elie Okobo, Alpha Diallo or Donta Hall.
Metropolitans 92, a young club founded in 2007, is at its best performance in LNB Pro A, the first time it reaches this phase of the competition. Everything is the work and collaboration of two people, the first Vincent Collet, their coach and the coach of the French national team who managed to convince the second, Wembanyama, to give up a Euroleague team and join Mets 92 for better development. An agreement from which everyone won, but especially the fans and the club. After finishing the regular season in second place, they eliminated Cholet in the quarterfinals with 2 wins at home, in the semifinals followed the fiery duel with the other Euroleague team, Lyon-Villeurbanne where Victor did not shine like in the quarterfinals but helped of his colleagues managed to eliminate them with 3-1, the only defeat was in the third match.
This season Monaco won all three direct meetings, in only two of them Metropolitans 92 could hope to cause any problems (95-82, 87-68), in the two matches Victor was helped by Tremont Waters ( 18.2 points, 5.0 assists), a player who was excluded in the meantime.
It will be a final that Sasa Obradovic’s team will treat with utmost seriousness and even though the Metropolitans have at their disposal a player who has won all the individual awards in the national league: Season MVP, Best Young Player, Best Defender, Best Scorer, Best Blocker and he only lacks the Finals MVP, won’t be enough against a team that won the Euroleague Final 4 game against Barcelona and eliminated Maccabi in the playoffs.
Valentin Petruta
Photo: CNEWS
