AS Monaco faces another significant blow as Mike James has been suspended for three games by the LNB. This absence will impact the team during the final two regular season matches of Betclic Élite, including a key game against Paris on Sunday, and will also carry over to the first playoff game.
The suspension is particularly frustrating given its avoidable nature. James displayed strong dissent towards the referees during Monaco’s loss to ASVEL two weeks prior, and unfortunately repeated this behavior during Game 2 of the Euroleague playoffs against Olympiakos. Following this latest sanction, James took to social media to pledge he would refrain from such conduct in the future:
“I will no longer talk to referees about calls. It will be a tough task for me but even though the game was probably over I hurt my team and didn’t make it any easier. I gotta do better.”
This absence comes on top of existing injuries to Alpha Diallo, Nikola Mirotic, and Daniel Theis, further challenging AS Monaco’s roster depth as they head into the postseason.