SAN ANTONIO -- No one at the AT&T Center believed what they just saw.
The frantic final 13 seconds of Game 2, explained by the Spurs and Thunder
Oklahoma City led by one inbounding the ball. Somehow, they survived the craziest 13 seconds of this year’s playoffs.
The Thunder celebrated underneath San Antonio's basket, pulling Serge Ibaka up from the floor where he had fallen clutching the ball after the buzzer sounded on their 98-97 Game 2 win. Manu Ginobili, Tim Duncan and several other furious Spurs immediately looked for the referees, while Gregg Popovich found one to rip into. The Spurs fans in the building mostly looked around bewildered -- hands on their heads, glancing wide-eyed at their neighbor hoping they could explain one of the wildest 13.5 seconds in NBA playoff history.
“Fucking violation,” someone barked from the San Antonio tunnel under the arena as the team left the floor.
But the Spurs, just like Oklahoma City’s players, struggled to explain exactly what had happened in the game’s final moments. Even they weren’t quite sure.
0:13
On the prior possession, right after nailing a three-pointer, LaMarcus Aldridge was fouled on another attempt behind the arc and knocked down all three free throws to cut the Thunder's lead to 98-97. Now, Oklahoma City needed a clean inbounds and were out of timeouts. The clock officially showed 13.5 seconds remaining when the referee handed the ball to Dion Waiters on the sideline near mid-court and began his five-second count.
Russell Westbrook didn't have enough separation when he sprinted into the backcourt, nor could Serge Ibaka separate himself as he flew around a Steven Adams screen. Ginobili's inbounds defense was a level beyond aggressive -- he was jumping wildly and landed perilously close to the out-of-bounds line, which is illegal for him to cross. Waiters, seeing Durant but needing space, used his elbow to push Ginobili away while still standing out of bounds.
"That was an offensive foul (against) Ginobili," TNT analyst Chris Webber righteously raged moments after the buzzer. "Ginobili, the coaches, the team, everyone is upset. That was an offensive foul, a blatant offensive foul."
Ginobili agreed after the game, while admitting he wouldn’t know how to call it.
“(I don’t know) what type of violation it is,” Ginobili said. “It had to have been something.”
Despite the deliberate elbow, Waiters seemed unsure which play he was being asked about after the game.
“To be honest, I was caught up in the game,” Waiters said. “I really don’t know what happened, to be honest with you.”
But Waiters did seem to know exactly what happened when he was asked about Ginobili’s potential violation happening before contact was made: “Hopefully they’ll look at it and they’ll see he stepped out and it should have been a tech, too,” he said.
It was a play several players admitted has never happened in their careers. Ken Mauer, in a pool report following the game, said the same thing.
“It was a play we have never seen before, ever,” Mauer said. “But we feel we should have had an offensive foul on Waiters.”
0:12-0:11
With no violations called and no timeouts, Waiters only choice was to lob a pass over Danny Green to Kevin Durant, who had found a brief moment of space immediately past the half-court logo. Durant rose and caught the ball like a NFL receiver going for a jump ball.
“You’ve got to get the ball inbounds,” Waiters said. “Kevin, I just lobbed it up to him, used all his height.”
Durant briefly grabed the ball with two hands, but at this point, Green had recovered. Patty Mills was in the area, too, coming off Westbrook to pressure Durant as he brought the ball down. Somehow, Durant lost it while falling to the ground.
“Danny Green did a good job when [Durant] brought it down, he stripped him,” Waiters said. The ball ricocheted briefly between Green’s legs before he grabbed it.
0:10
The narrative shifted after the game for the Spurs due to the turnover.
“We complain about (the inbounds) because that’s what we do,” Ginobili said. “We had the ball. We had a great shot. We had a few other opportunities so it’s things that happen.”
Although impossible to realize in the heat of the moment, the Spurs understood afterwards that the inbounds call could easily have worked out in their favor if they had just hit a shot.
"We ended up getting a turnover and a steal out of that, so you can't really fault it," Kawhi Leonard said.
0:09-0:08
As Green bobbled for the ball, Mills saw his opening, streaking towards the basket that would have potentially own the game. If Green’s pass was on target, that likely would have happened. But the pass wasn’t -- it was well too long instead. Mills had to reach out for it, one hand over his shoulder, coming down with the ball too far under the basket for the quick score. By the time he recovered it, Adams was back in position.
“We were trying to inbounds it and turned it over,” Adams said. “From there, it’s just a scramble, mate.”
0:07
In scramble situations like this one, Gregg Popovich's strategy is clear: let them play. San Antonio had a timeout in their pocket, but Popovich didn't use it. Normally, he doesn't. With an advantage developing and the Thunder in full panic mode, it only made sense for the Spurs to go for it right there.
“I can’t say that,” LaMarcus Aldridge said, asked if they should have taken one. “We had a shot at it, we had an opportunity for an offensive rebound.”
0:06-0:05
After catching underneath the basket, Mills shuffled the ball over to Manu Ginobili and kept running straight to the right corner. Mills shot 39 percent from that corner this season -- 18 made threes in 46 attempts. Somehow, Ginobili saw him out of the corner of his eyes and hooked a pass to Mills over his shoulder, leaving Oklahoma City scrambling again. Adams was closest, sprinting out in a panic.
“I just saw the pass and I tried to go out there and do the best I can to contest,” Adams said. “I’m not sure if I influenced his shot but he missed, so I’ll take it, I’ll take kudos for that.”
0:04
“Man, just don’t make this shot.”
That’s what Waiters said he was thinking watching the ball launch from Mills’ hand. Mills didn’t. The shot was short, well short, not even drawing rim.
“My legs were there,” Mills said. “I just missed it.”
0:03
Adams’ closeout happened so frantically that he went flying by Mills and into the first row of seats. As he stood up, a fan grabbed onto his arm, perhaps just steadying herself after Adams’ fall had knocked her off balance. Either way, Adams angrily ripped it away.
0:02-0:01
Mills’ wild miss short surprised everyone, enough that the ball bounced once on the ground before anyone touched it. When it came up, it fell next to Aldridge, close enough that he thought he’d lay it in for the game-winning layup right then.
“I thought I had the ball,” Aldridge said
Yet, he didn’t. The only play Aldridge complained about was that one.
“I thought they had a good chunk of my jersey,” he said correctly. “I thought there were maybe some things that happened that maybe shouldn’t have happened. But now it’s over.”
Aldridge said Ibaka pulled his jersey at the end... guess there is some proof... #Spurs #Thunder pic.twitter.com/D5nx0JikaG
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) May 3, 2016
0:00
Durant let out a yell standing on the three-point line as the buzzer expired, marching straight towards Russell Westbrook for an aggressive high five. The bench tumbled out towards Ibaka, clutching the ball as if Aldridge still might swipe it from him and win the game somehow.
“I thought we lost the game three times tonight and got back in it,” Gregg Popovich said. “Give our guys credit for hanging in there where they weren’t very sharp.”
The league’s transparency-driven two-minute report will likely highlight several (if not a dozen) missed calls during the final 13 seconds. To Popovich, that means nothing.
“It won’t mean anything if they do that,” he said. “The game’s over.”
For the Thunder, all they know is that they won and that the series is 1-1 headed back home.
“It’s the playoffs, man, lot of calls, lots of non-calls,” Westbrook said. “A lot of people like to say it comes down to the last play, but I thought we played great prior to (that) and put ourselves in position to win the basketball game. And we did.”
In the end, that’s all that really matters.
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