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\nThe Good: Wade Baldwin IV<\/strong><\/p>\n
Players will say that when they play the game, win or lose, they will leave everything on the court. I don\u2019t think that anyone doubts the efforts of the whole team on Wednesday night, but if there\u2019s one player who really gave it his all and has the numbers to prove it, it\u2019s Baldwin. He had a game-highs in points (on 5\/6 from 2 and 5\/7 from 3) and assists, with an equal game-high in rebounds. This gave him a game-high performance index (PIR) rating of 35, with Loyd the next closest with 24.<\/p>\n
If we look at the whole series, Baldwin was really the standout player for Maccabi, averaging 19.8 points, 5 rebounds, 5.8 assists (against 3.2 turnovers), 0.8 steals and a PIR of 24. These numbers were up from his season averages, with the only game he played better during the season statistically his 38-point, 39 PIR effort in the home loss to Red Star Belgrade back in February.<\/p>\n
It’s even more impressive when you consider that the Monaco defense focused on him and Brown (who himself had little influence, with a PIR of 0). Ultimately, it was too much for the team to overcome.
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Lorenzo Brown
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\n\u201cWe play as a team and Lorenzo gave a great effort, we didn\u2019t lose the game from that, I\u2019m very proud of him and he\u2019s our leader,\u201d Maccabi coach Oded Katash said after the game. \u201cHe and Wade really get the most attention and Monaco is a team that was built over the past few years and we are new team that was built from zero. We need to learn from that for the following seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Twitter yesterday, Baldwin posted<\/strong> the following:<\/p>\n \u201cGave everything I had. This Euroleague season and series was the most fun I\u2019ve had in my career. Congrats to Monaco for a competitive series and advancing. Extremely proud to wear the Maccabi brand on my chest. I will deliver a Final Four in a Maccabi uniform. #FEAR\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, Baldwin and Maccabi extended the guard\u2019s contract until 2025, so it looks like he\u2019ll be with the team as it will look to improve next season. Josh Nebo – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div> In games 1 through 4 of the series, Maccabi did not lose the rebound count, winning it in games 1, 2 and 4 38-32, 40-32 and 46-35, with the teams drawing level 39-39 in game 3.<\/p>\n On Wednesday night, Monaco won the rebounds 38-28, with 15 offensive rebounds (to Maccabi\u2019s 6) to give them too many second-change points, which greatly contributed to the victory. This is a disappointing number for Katash and his team, considering the team average of 35.7 rebounds. Maccabi only got a collective 6 rebounds from its primary centers \u2013 Josh Nebo (2 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal) and Alex Poythress (5 points and 2 rebounds) \u2013 whereas during the series until Wednesday Nebo averaged 7 rebounds and Poythress 3.75 rebounds (playing less minutes than he did on Wednesday). During the regular season, Nebo averaged 6.1 rebounds and Poythress averaged 3.7 rebounds.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rebound was an issue,\u201d Katash acknowledged. \u201cBut we came into a game plan that was clear and I think that it was really over-motivated and those threes really hurt us and sometimes you need to just live with the shots and not make fouls. From that we gave up many rebounds and it was a factor under the basket.\u201d Jordan Loyd – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div> When Martin hit two free-throws with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter and Maccabi up 79-76, Maccabi was every chance of coming away with the victory \u2013 especially given that James had been off the court with injury concerns. However, what came after that was a Monaco run of 21-7, during which the home team looked composed while the visitors looked too eager and overexcited.<\/p>\n Turnovers \u2013 which were an issue throughout the game for Maccabi, with the team turning the ball over 15 times to only 13 assists \u2013 was not even the issue in the last 5 minutes, with only 1 turnover coming during that period. Rather, it was a combination of shooting and fouls which were a problem for the Yellow & Blue, with Monaco\u2019s Loyd notably scoring 8 points and drawing 2 fouls on 3-point shots \u2013 including an unsportsmanlike foul on Bonzie Colson (8 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal) with just under 4 minutes to go, which resulted in free-throws that gave Monaco a lead they would not relinquish. Lorenzo Brown: Photo credit- Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div> \u201cLong-distance shots toward the end of the game, like I said before. Free-throws and silly fouls, in my opinion. We had them right where we wanted them at the end. Those fouls separated us and there it was.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere were 3-4 defensive possessions where we needed to use our fouls better and we were little a bit over-motivated,\u201d Katash confessed.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know that,\u201d Loyd said when told of his numbers during the last 5 minutes. \u201cI knew the mismatches I thought I had, I wanted to try to get to my jumper and things like that, so I\u2019m always confident in that. I was fortunate to hit a three and then hit some free throws, even though I missed a couple. When Mike [James] went out, I wanted to take it upon myself and Elie [Okobo (9 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals), with who had 4 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the last 5 minutes] also did a good job at closing. So it was good.\u201d Oded Katash – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman<\/p><\/div> Maccabi returns home and needs to immediately switch its focus to the Winner League, with a Tel Aviv Derby contest at home on Sunday evening (18:30 IDT \/ 11:30 EDT). It\u2019s the last game before the playoffs. With Maccabi currently sitting in first place with 21 wins and Hapoel Tel Aviv sitting in second place with 20 wins (together with Hapoel Jerusalem, having already played their last game of the regular season), all eyes will be focused on Yad Eliyahu to see whether Maccabi can win the game and finish first place in the table, which will give them homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, I think we just have to come with the same mentality as we play EuroLeague now,\u201d Brown said of the Derby. \u201cSometimes we kind of get in a mix between EuroLeague and Israeli league, but I feel like now we can focus more what we have to do in that league and try to win a championship there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe last game against Jerusalem [a 76-83 loss on Sunday night] and Hapoel [this Sunday], it\u2019s tough to make the switch, but we will do the best,\u201d Katash said. \u201cIt will be a challenge that we will need to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maccabi Tel Aviv\u2019s EuroLeague season came to an end on Wednesday night, going down to AS Monaco 97-86 in a game 5 loss away from home. Wade Baldwin IV (27 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 steal) starred for Maccabi, with support on the scoreboard from Jarell Martin (12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":86883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4,4045],"class_list":["post-86872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-land-hoops","tag-maccabi-tel-aviv","tag-wade-baldwin","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nThe Bad: The Rebounding<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/DSC-1984-scaled.jpeg\")
\nThe Ugly: Last 5 minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sportsrabbi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-05-10-at-21.52.15.jpeg\")
\n\u201cSomebody had to win, you know,\u201d an upset Brown said after the game. \u201cIt came down to late game fouls, silly fouls, in my opinion. Loyd got to the line with three fouls from the three-point line and that kind of separated us at the end in the last three minutes. Just got to be solid and live with those long-distance shots.<\/p>\n
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\nUp Next: The Derby for First Place<\/strong><\/p>\n