By now you’ve seen Kawhi Leonard’s bull’s eye jumper to give the Spurs a win in Orlando on Wednesday. But you might have missed what happened next.
The Magic caught the Spurs napping and almost forced overtime
Elfrid Payton had a chance to tie San Antonio at the buzzer, but the ball slipped out of his hands.
What a full-court pass by Evan Fournier there, and a smart decision by Elfrid Payton to let it bounce once: with 0.9 seconds left there was really no time to catch, gather and get a shot up. It needs to be bang-bang.
Unfortunately, it was bang-brick. Payton was way off on the admittedly tough reverse layup, making the brilliant pass, spectacularly tricky run out and rare mistake by the Spurs for naught.
One other thing that’s just wild about the clip is how much ground Kawhi makes up once Fournier throws the pass. He’s well below the foul line when the ball’s in the air, yet he’s a hair away from challenging the shot by the time it goes up. You wonder if Payton knew Kawhi was coming and that spooked him a little. It’d spook me!
After the game, Payton said the ball slipped out of his hands. Ah, what could have been.
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