With a historic performance that vaulted his team two places higher in the standings, Wade Baldwin of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv more than earned the MVP honor for Round 30 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Baldwin scored 30 points and dished 10 assists as Maccabi shook off visiting LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne 98-90 on Tuesday. He made 9 of 15 two-point shots, 1 of 2 threes and 9 of 10 free throws while also grabbing 5 rebounds and 2 steals. With the victory, Maccabi jumped from ninth to seventh place over Tuesday losers Virtus Segafredo Bologna and Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Baldwin's resulting performance index rating of 46 was not only his career best, but the highest in the EuroLeague for more than three years and for Maccabi since 2006. He tied the great Nikola Vujcic for Maccabi's second-best PIR this century, both of them just 1 PIR point behind club record-holder Anthony Parker with 47. Baldwin also became just the 17th player to earn seven or more MVP of the Round awards.