Maybe it was too hot in Astroballe for AS Monaco
Before the last game of the French League finals, the coach of AS Monaco, Sasa Obradovic accused the air conditioning problem from Astroballe, the Asvel Lyon arena. He said it is inhuman to play there and it sounds like an excuse for a future loss of the title. Because if it’s too hot it is for both teams not only for AS Monaco and if we take a look at the basketball courts of the old continent many of them don’t use any air-conditioned. How it was 10-15 years ago when almost nobody used it? It was hot too, but the percentages stay high for the good squads.
But maybe Sasa Obradovic is right: the excessive heat affected a lot the players. If we just compare AS Monaco scoring at home in the previous games of the finals 97 and 89 points and yesterday only 55, it looks that the complaining of the reputed coach makes sense. The percentages have melted like ice cream too: 5-24 from the arc and only 10-20 from the free-throw line for the visitors, numbers that are not enough to win the title even in Hungary or Bulgaria!
It is strange that AS Monaco played so poor, even if they had 61 shots and Asvel Lyon only 50 the entire game. The free-throw situation was almost tied with 21-20 in favor of the host team, who made also 19 turnovers compared with only 12 of Monaco. But when the heat hits you, in the absence of air-conditioned, you definitely lose. Like Obradovic said: it is too hot in Astroballe.
Gratian Cormos
