Monaco 91-71 Barça: Year ends in defeat

Barça are now 11-6 in regular season EuroLeague play after a disappointing showing at the Salle Gaston Médecin to end the year.

They never really recovered from Monaco's 7-0 streak right at the start, and were already down by double figures before the first period had even ended. Willy Hernangómez's rebound excellence wasn't enough to halt Monaco's advance. They simply couldn't get anything wrong and were soon +16 and sailing away from the visitors.

No matter what Barça did in the second half, Monaco always seemed to have a response. There was a moment of hope when they finally knocked something into Monaco's lead, but when it had narrowed to +8, it the gap then started to widen again.

At +17 things were worse than ever, and the dejected blaugrana side, instead of picking up their game, started to flounder even more. At +30, things became despairing.

All sides have bad days and this was Barça's, although they are still sitting in a strong third position as 2023 draws to a close, with the next game being a Clásico against leaders Real Madrid at the Palau Blaugrana on January 3. 

MATCH STATS

Monaco, 91
Barça, 71

Monaco: Blossomgame (11), Brown (4), Motiejunas (8), Strazel (3), James (20), Okobo (9), Diallo (19), Cornelie (5), Hall (6) i Walker (6)
Barça: Satoransky (2),  Laprovittola (9), Kalinic (10), Da Silva (-), Vesely (6), Joel Parra (10), Jabari Parker (15), Nnaji (4), Jokubaitis (7), Brizuela (2), Willy Hernangómez (4) i Paulí (2)

Periods: 27-15; 20-21 // 20-16; 24-19

Referees: Fernando Rocha, Luka Kardum & Adar Peer