


Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv forced ALBA Berlin into submission thanks to excellent shooting and strong defense on Thursday night at Menorah Mivtachim Arena. The hosts were led by an inspired performance from guard Wade Baldwin, who scored 21 of his career-high 33 points in the second half to help the home team to an 87-74 victory, which kept it firmly on course to reach the playoffs.
Maccabi overpowered the visitors in shooting from two-point range, where it made 20 of 41 shots (48.8%) whereas ALBA made only 12 of 31 (38.7%). Baldwin can take the lion’s share of the credit for that too, having sank 8 of 13 shots from mid-range while he also drained 4 of 8 from beyond the arc, capping a dazzling display with 6 assists.
With starting point guard Lorenzo Brown limping off injured midway through the first quarter, Maccabi did a good job keeping the turnovers down, having given the ball away just 9 times to ALBA’s 11.
The visitors actually out-rebounded the hosts (42-41) and had more assists (19-13), but Maccabi head coach Oded Kattash pointed out that in addition to ALBA's size, the other reason the visiting team was able to take 18 offensive rebounds was that Maccabi's defense forced so many missed shots. ALBA managed to make only 11 of 35 three-point shots (31.4%), while Maccabi sank 13 of 29 from downtown (44.8%).