Monaco forces Game 5 in Paris!

The 2025 Betclic ELITE playoff finals will have its finale: this Tuesday, June 24, Paris Basketball and Monaco will face off for the fifth time this month. This Sunday at Gaston Medecin arena, the Roca Team evened the series at two wins apiece by winning Game 4 80-74. Vassilis Spanoulis’s team managed to limit Paris’s offense to just 31 points in the second half. Already contained in the second half on Friday, MVP T.J. Shorts (13 points on 3/11 shooting, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in 26 minutes) once again struggled against the opposing defense, which featured numerous defensive switches. Tiago Splitter’s staff – who was ejected after a second technical foul – will need to find adjustments against Monaco’s small-ball lineup that has caused so many problems for Paris Basketball.

Terry Tarpey ignites Monaco

Unlike Game 3, Monaco took control early. With Terry Tarpey (7 points and 10 rebounds in less than 20 minutes) starting at power forward instead of Petr Cornelie, the home team jumped ahead early (8-0). The New Yorker made an immediate impact: a first 3-pointer, a rebound-assist, then a huge block followed by an Alpha Diallo 3-pointer allowed Monaco to take off. But Diallo’s third foul midway through the second quarter, on an unsportsmanlike foul, proved costly for Vassilis Spanoulis’s team, who entered halftime trailing by 3 points (40-43). The Parisians, limited to 23 points after 15 minutes of play, had found their rhythm (20 points in 5 minutes). But this productive period didn’t last: the third quarter was Paris’s worst of the night, with just 13 total points. The Roca Team, fielding increasingly smaller lineups (with Blossomgame as the lone big), managed to match Paris’s mobility. « We can execute better (our game plan), sometimes we slow down too much, especially when they play small, » admitted forward Daulton Hommes. A view not necessarily shared by his coach. « At the end of the day, we want our best one-on-one players to have the ball. That means T.J. Shorts, Nadir Hifi, and Maodo Lo, » commented Tiago Splitter, seemingly confident in his strategy. « Maybe we’ll need to put them in situations to help them more, » he added, while Matthew Strazel, who had a strong second half (20 points), explained his coach’s approach. « We finished first in the regular season, we earned the right to finish the season in front of our fans, our families, » reminded the Brazilian coach.

More to follow.

In Monaco,