Wade Baldwin had another excellent scoring night for Maccabi Tel-Aviv, which boosted its playoff chances with its 93-79 win over Baskonia at home.
The American scoring guard led all scorers with 24 points, on 8/18 shooting, while he also grabbed seven rebounds and dished eight assists for a PIR of 31. Lorenzo Brown added 17 points for the winners and Josh Nebo posted a double-double of 15 points and 14 rebounds.
On the contrary, five Baskonia players scored in double digits, with Darius Thompson having 17 points and seven assists.
“We’re happy that we’re now 16 wins and 13 losses. Lorenzo is the best point guard in EuroLeague and I’m the best combo in EuroLeague. We have five more games left.
If we don’t finish out and make the playoffs, that statement holds no weight. But right now we’re playing like the best duo in EuroLeague,” Wade Baldwin said afterwards.
The best duo in the league? @The_Fourth_Wade post-game is ALL about the next five games though 👏#EveryGameMatters pic.twitter.com/KbmVnjzcNP
— Turkish Airlines EuroLeague (@EuroLeague) March 16, 2023
The Basques managed to erase a 12-point deficit midway through the second quarter and with an excellent performance on both ends, they took an 11-point lead early in the third (49-60).
Since then, though, it was all Maccabi. The Israelis elevated their game on both ends and outscored their opponents 44-19 the rest of the way to cruise to an easy win.
With this victory, Maccabi improved to 16-13 in the standings and made a crucial step towards the playoffs. On the contrary, Baskonia dropped to 15-14, but kept the tiebreaker and will have the upper hand in case of a tie at the end of the regular season.
