Could there be a more exciting ending to a basketball game than two incredibly huge shots in the last second?
I personally don’t care who wins. I don’t like either team. But I love the way the game ended. Wow.
Of course, I had the PVR in overtime at the end. Did Duncan travel to create some room and get his shot off…yep. Did the clock start in time for the last shot… hard to say, but at least there are independent shot clock operators in the playoffs now. I raised a stink behind the scenes after the Mavs first playoff appearance against Utah where time miraculously disappeared while John Stockton was at the foul line with 2.9 seconds left in the game. The league gave me a bone by instituting independent shot clock operators for the playoffs the next year. So, we can set aside any conspiracy theories or home court cookingor can we?
One of our tech gurus pointed out to me today that the official stat keeper at the game recorded the time of Duncans shot at .9 sec remaining. Which means the Lakers should have had an extra half second to get off the shot. Which probably would have given them too much time to pull off the “Fish that Saved LA” shot. All speculation of course, but that’s half the fun of talking about it . 🙂
Beyond the fact that they both went in, what I found most amazing about the two last shots was that they were the only last game ending shots, in I dont know how many games, where there wasn’t contact on the shots.
Which leads to the question: With all the contact that goes on at the end, so that all the TV announcers can talk about how the officials want the players to decide the game, when was the last time a playoff game had a foul called on a game deciding shot as time expired?
I can only recall one in all the Mavs games I have seen in the last five years, regular or playoff, and that was when Violet Palmer called a foul on Dirk, as Peja tried to beat us in a regular season game. Peja went to the line to win it. He hit the first, missed the second and the Mavs won in OT.