prior possession Toronto was up three with 24 seconds left. instead of driving to the basket, he stepped back and took an ill advised off balance 3 pointer. the buzzer beater was entertaining but shouldn't have been necessary. a college player would get roasted for that. NBA has no discipline. Good luck Beilein.
5
The photo reminds me of President Lincoln's second inaugural speech, "both (Kawhi and Embiid) pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other," while waiting for the shot to drop.
1
This article captures the moment well. What a shot! What a series! We need a phrase comparable to 'a walk off home run' to capture the weight of moment. Buzzer beater says you beat the clock. Walk off home run says your hit got the win.
I'm sorry to read that the 76ers are likely to be decimated in the offseason. The article about the Blazers and world champion Warriors 😃 offered a striking contrast to Philly. The strength of the Blazers goes partially to the fact that the team has been together for such a long time. Philly has a good team. Give them a chance to build some chemistry, stop the madness! I want to see Joel Embiid get healthy. What courage when you feel like crap! Finally, while no one has mentioned being postered, I'm certain that picture of Kawhi crouched on the floor, Embiid looking around hopefully, the guy in black and all the fans and players on the bench suspended in awe will go down as a classic. Great shot!
2
I wasn't watching the game, but my son was. He told me to come and watch the end of regulation because he was certain it was going into OT. I saw that shot and told him that a higher power was making up their mind every time it bounced...
1
I'm not sure why a half lucky shot from perhaps the best player in the game that ended a game 7 should continue to generate such hysteria and focus , but it has already obscured the real reasons Toronto won and in a sport where truth and reality have already been defeated by the promotion of individual players the real factors will be unknown in history for anyone who did not witness the game .
In today's NBA it is Lebron who won 3 championships not his team . His teammates had nothing to do with it nor did matchups , injuries , strategy , or unusual occurrences . If that were not bad enough Players are now ranked based on how their teams ( how many rings ) did marginalizing individual performance so in 2050 some kid new to basketball will think Robert Horry ( a role player who hit a couple of lucky shots, but was on 7 teams ( often on the bench ) that won ) was far better than Wilt Chamberlain ( only two rings ) still the most dominant player to ever put on sneakers .
The biggest reason Toronto won was the injury to Philly's Embiid who is healthy would have been unstoppable and likely averaged 30-40 points with more than a dozens rebounds , but that and other things will be long forgotten now that we have " the shot " .
@VB Did Embiid's laundry list of ailments affect all those missed shots yesterday (most 20+ feet away from the rim) did they prevent him from being in and around the paint? At 7'1 Embiid played like he was JJ Redick's replacement, instead of the dominant force you claim he is. Btw, as even the casual fan comprehends, defenses stout up as the playoffs progress, how is it you reckon Embiid was ever going to average near 40, he didn't come close to that in the stat padding regular season.
4
@Bizzzy Body
I am not interested in debating what I know to be true with fans who don't know , but Embiid could barely walk due to illness the last 4 games or so which was obvious to anyone who watched the series . He averaged about 28 points and 14 boards during the season and would have easily scored a lot more with that statue Gasol checking him . You are free to believe whatever fantasy you want .
My most important points I guess were over your head .
@VB
s/b who if healthy would have been unstoppable .
After decades of sports watching The Shot was the most exhilerating sports moment I have ever experienced. The last twenty four hours have been devoted to reading about and rewatching endlessly The Shot. It is a moment like this that explains our addiction to sports. Thank you KL.
4
That was an amazing shot, with a dose of good luck and karma. Embiid's reaction when it dropped was worth the price of admission.
Mr. Leonard is the superstar not talked about enough, partly of his own preference and doing, but he's remarkable.Scores, passes, plays solid D. Would love to see the Knicks get him, but he's smart enough to steer clear of Dolan's madhouse.
2
Swish means a ball going through the basket without touching any part of the rim or backboard. You may want to rethink the title of the article.
3
The history made it so much more savoury. Vince Carter's missed buzzer-beater, the losses over and over to LeBron, the Game 1 curses... Great job Raptors.
Now, about those Leafs...
3
more bounces than Allan Houston's Game 5 winner vs. Miami, but that was an 8 seed beating a 1 seed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex-U50tT4aI
That was awesome. I still have sports, music and my dogs to make life a little sweeter.
5
A shot for the ages! Such a joyful moment for Raptors fans. It's made me smile all day.
7
Hopefully Kawhi re-signs in Toronto. Instead of being the star of a city like LA, why not be the star of the greatest NATION on earth?!
15
Great shot by Kawhi but no one’s mentioning the fact that Joel Embid screened Ben Simmons from guarding Kawhi on that last play. Perhaps there would have been a different result had the quicker and nimbler Simmons been allowed to continue defending against the shot. Instead, Embid was out of position, in the way, and looking clueless, once again after the play. The most amazing thing about pro sports is that despite the high salaries being showered upon athletes, very little work seems to be devoted to player development in the off season. Too often, the same mistakes get repeated by the same players season after season. Regardless, there are some things that established basketball just has plain wrong, like not even jumping a slight bit at the free throw line. That’s not surprising given how long it took for folks to figure out that they should jump for rebounds (courtesy of Bill Russell). Nevertheless, it’s good see that the high basketball IQ teams are the only ones left in the playoffs.
2
@NJJACK Name spelling: Embiid.
JE did screen off Simmons, but it was good defense. The arc of the shot is evidence of it.
4
@NJJACK
It was a great shot. If Simmons had stayed with Leonard no doubt second- guessers would say the taller player should have switched to deny the jumper.
4
Happy Mother’s Day...!
2
Shot from the corner.
Happens all the time.
No biggie
@Thaddman
Let's see you do it, with a 7"2" guy lunging at you with his arm raised.
2
Gotta love that this happened in Canada in a game invented by James Naismith, a Canadian.
23
@Jack Noon You got me. Thanks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Naismith Just did a crosslots -- off Interstate -- route in Springfield, Massachusetts, and was pleased after man-n-y years of seeing the pro Hall of Fame out by I-91 to find the REASON it was in the city, namely Springfield College. It, I've NOW just learned, was a YMCA training school and Naismith's first stop after McGill and the place he 'designed the game' in 1891 per Wiki. Lifetime learning's MY byword. Good for Toronto! Next time, Philly.
1