Tony Parker’s spinning, no-look assist is as beautiful as basketball gets

Everyone’s talking about the last 13 seconds of Game 2 between the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder, and rightfully so -- it was the wildest ending to an NBA playoff game in recent memory, featuring inexplicable mistakes from both teams and the officials.

But less than 30 seconds of game time before utter chaos reigned, Tony Parker did something that we need to talk about. We can’t let Dion Waiters’ elbow, Danny Green’s indecisiveness or Patty Mills’ double-failure to score completely overshadow the most furiously beautiful display of basketball skill and intelligence we’ve seen during these playoffs.

Live, from the broadcast angle, this seemed like more luck than skill. Even on multiple re-watches, it appears that Parker is kind of just making this up and gets lucky. And then you watch the overhead angle ...

... he knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing the whole time. Every single bit of this is on purpose.

First, there’s the slight little side-eye glance at LaMarcus Aldridge. Seeing that Steven Adams is already in the lane and Russell Westbrook is hauling ass trying to recover, Parker knows he’s going to be open. He thinks about making an early pass, but Russ stays in the passing lane, so he decides to take it at Adams. As he’s spinning, he sees Russ crashing to the basket. He knows that Aldridge -- who had 38 points to this point and 38 points in three quarters the game before -- is wide open. The quick two does the Spurs little good. An open three by their hottest player is just about the best possible outcome on this possession for the Spurs, even if Aldridge hit his first three-pointer of the season in Game 1 of this series.

But how to get him the ball? The answer, apparently, is this.

So, to recap:

1. Parker leads a break with the Thunder in decent defensive position, down four points with under a minute to go.

2. He spots Aldridge getting open for three.

3. There’s no way to get him the ball easily, in position for an open shot.

4. He drives right at Adams.

5. He puts a nasty spin move on Adams.

6. While spinning, he spots Aldridge getting open.

7. He evades Serge Ibaka.

8. He throws a windmill behind-the-back pass around Ibaka and Westbrook.

The number of skills that Parker showed here and the number of decisions he had to make in such a short period of time were amazing. The degree of difficulty on those skills and decisions was even better. He did it with incredible speed and smoothness -- embarrassing three people in the process. It’s the best play of the playoffs so far.

I’m mad at Dion Waiters, Danny Green, Patty Mills and the referees for ruining it.