BATUUUUM! (Blazers beat the Spurs!)
By JJWeatherman 16 Comments
Yesterday, I witnessed one of the best basketball games in recent memory. The Portland Trail Blazers took on the San Antonio Spurs (best record in the NBA) at home and pulled out the win in miraculous fashion. It was a battle throughout, but some key plays that all took place during the last 40 seconds of the game helped Portland take the win. I have to share this; It’s too good.
The first huge play came at the hands of Portland’s point guard, Andre Miller. After a missed three-pointer, he makes an incredible steal to keep the Blazers in the game. Had he not made this steal, San Antonio’s Tony Parker would have likely run the clock down to about 20 seconds and the game would have been all but out of reach. Here’s that steal:
Following the steal, the Spurs take a time-out and advance the ball to near half-court. They throw the ball in to their star, Manu Ginobili. He sets up to take a final shot to seal the game, but he overdribbles the ball and Portland’s guard, Wesley Matthews, comes up with a huuuge steal and takes off to tie the game. He ends up missing an attempt, but luckily for the Blazers, Nicolas Batum rebounds the ball and puts it back up to get fouled with 0.9 seconds on the clock. He makes the foul shots and the game is tied! I couldn’t believe this was happening at this point. Here’s all of that:
San Antonio now has the ball at half-court again after calling another time-out. This time though, they have just 0.9 seconds to get a game-winning shot up. That’s enough time to either catch and shoot from distance, or throw a lob to the rim and try to get a layup or dunk. They opt for the lob, but instead, they throw it out of bounds! Because neither team ever touched the ball before it sailing out of bounds, the clock remained at 0.9 seconds, Portland ball. Is this really happening? Portland has a chance to win it here in regulation after trailing by four, less than 40 seconds ago? Against the savvy veteran Spurs?! This is too much. The Blazers set to inbound themselves now. Will they go for a shot, or a lob like the Spurs? Well, here, just watch:
Blaaaaazers win! Nicolas Batuuuuuum! Frenchie wins the game!! Get those long arms up there over Tony Parker! Oh man, what a finish. Who would have known that the Blazers could thoroughly out-execute the best executing team in the league the last minute and pull out a win? What a crazy turn of events. This is the second time the Blazers have played the Spurs this season, and they’ve won both times despite the Spurs being, record-wise, the best team in the NBA. I’m excited if you can’t already tell. Looking forward to Sunday’s game against division rival Oklahoma City. I feel like we match up with them pretty well, so we’ll see what happens.
Rip City, baby!