Basketball fans were treated to an absolute gem of a game on Tuesday night between the Phoenix Suns and the Los Angeles Clippers. It had a little bit of everything — huge performances from role players, some unreal shotmaking by stars down the stretch, the Clippers battling back to take the lead late, the referees reminding us they were there a lot (“everything” doesn’t necessarily mean “good”) — but ultimately, Phoenix came out on top due to the heroics of Deandre Ayton to take a 2-0 series lead.
In a throwback to the Tyson Chandler era with the franchise, Monty Williams drew up a play for Jae Crowder to take the ball out of bounds, lob it to Ayton, and let him throw it down, taking advantage of the fact that you can’t be hit with a goaltending on an inbounds play. Unsurprisingly, the fact that it led to a 104-103 win caused the stadium to nearly implode on itself.
As is oftentimes the case when these sorts of things happen, videos popped up from in the arena. Here is one of them. I implore you, wait for the twist.
Yes, the angle we get of the final play rocks, and the very end — it pans to show the duo of Stephen A. Smith and Michael Wilbon, both of whom are totally gobsmacked — is extremely funny. But the person who recorded it deserves tons of credit for some spectacular camerawork and letting things build and build instead of cutting right to Stephen A and Wilbon. It helps contextualize, to an extent, the level of amazement both feel in that moment, to the point that both look frozen for a moment or two as they attempt to reckon with what they just saw. It’s beautiful. Give it an Oscar.
