The guard stepped up in the second half to maintain his team’s 100% record at Coca-Cola Arena
McKinley Wright’s career night pulls Dubai past Derek Willis-led Paris
Rapport de match
3 Minute de lecture
Regular Season
Round 13 of 38
Regular Season
Dubai BasketballDUB
9089
Paris BasketballPBB
Overview
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Things did not look good for Dubai Basketball after the first 10 minutes against Paris Basketball.
Trailing 17–32, with Paris setting its season high for points in a quarter, Dubai was stuck in third gear.
In desperate need of a response, Filip Petrusev delivered 11 second-quarter points as Dubai outscored Paris 29–13 to take a 46–45 lead into halftime. After the break, and especially down the stretch, McKinley Wright took over, guiding the UAE-based side to a 90–89 victory.
Wright, who entered the final frame with 8 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, showed why Dubai was so keen to bring him in last summer. He erupted for 16 fourth-quarter points, plus 2 rebounds and 2 assists, finishing with career highs in points (24), rebounds (5) and PIR (30).
“Huge win for us,” Wright told EuroLeague TV afterward. “They’re a different type of team – they have the fastest pace in the EuroLeague for a reason.
“As you could see in the first quarter, they had a great start. All they do is run and gun, so it’s very difficult to defend that.
“But we did a great job of staying together for 40 minutes. They made runs, we made runs, and we did a great job of coming out at the end.”
Wright’s heroics ultimately overshadowed an excellent showing from Paris’s Derek Willis, who kept his team in the fight with a career-high 22 points. Wright and Willis traded blows early in the fourth, but as the game tightened, it was Wright who provided the more decisive contributions – helped in key moments by his teammates.
Nadir Hifi’s buzzer-beating three with less than one second remaining made the final score look closer than the game felt, as Wright had repeatedly got to the line and converted. Inside the final minute, a crucial Justin Anderson triple was followed by four free throws from Wright as Dubai flipped an 83–86 deficit into a 90–86 lead.
“Justin and our captain [Klemen Prepelic] did a great job,” Wright added. “We were down 15 in the first quarter, and they kept telling us there were three quarters left and it’s a long game – just stay together and weather the storm. It showed at the end.”
With the win, Dubai maintained its perfect record at Coca-Cola Arena this season, improving to 5–0 at home. Its only “home” loss came against Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv in a game played in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Paris, meanwhile, dropped to 2–4 on the road, suffering a similar fate to its Round 12 game at Olympiacos Piraeus: a fast start followed by a late fade.
The week-long FIBA break will give both teams a moment to reset. Paris visits AS Monaco next Thursday, December 4, while Dubai travels to Italy to face Virtus Bologna next Friday, December 5.
