This year’s playoffs have had more game winning shots than any other season I can remember. And the best part about it is we are only about halfway through.
Chris Paul, Derrick Rose, Jerryd Bayless, Paul Pierce and LeBron James have all helped give their teams a victory in the final moments of games thanks to some extremely clutch plays.
The shots from Rose, Pierce and James all came this weekend. Whether the players called “bank” or “game” doesn’t matter. The shots were flat out ridiculous.
Thanks to the Vine below, we can relive the three plays all within just six seconds.
Although it takes much more than just one play to win a basketball game, those final plays with the clock winding down are usually the most fun and memorable.
The Oklahoma City Thunder may not be in the playoffs this season, but they have a couple of guys in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook that can create clutch plays on any given night.
The Washington Wizards handed out a last second win to the Atlanta Hawks, but they received one during the regular season thanks to Westbrook.
Westbrook’s speed was on full display during the play that would help avoid sending the game to a second overtime. He left 0.8 seconds on the clock after getting to the rim and finishing a left-handed layup with no resistance from the Wizards.
There must have been some type of miscommunication from the team following the timeout, because the Wizards looked at one another in disbelief after the play. Check it out below.
The next play by KD is actually from the same game. Just about two and a half minutes before Westbrook’s shot, Durant put Marcin Gortat on a poster. Gortat was out a little further then he would have liked to be, so Durant made him pay with a little pump fake followed by a throw down in his face.
It may not have directly led to the Thunder winning the game like Russ’s layup, but a play like this with just under three minutes left in an overtime game is still clutch in my book.
Both Durant and Westbrook would end up stuffing the stat sheet. Durant finished with 34 points, seven rebounds and three assists while Westbrook put up 32 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
It’s plays like those and numbers like that which almost make it unfair to have two players of superstar caliber like Durant and Westbrook on the same team.
It is too bad they aren’t able to compete in these playoffs. They would surely be able to entertain hoops fans with clutch baskets and jaw-dropping plays.
Should the team be able to stay healthy, Durant and Westbrook won’t have a problem showing up in highlight reels everywhere like some of the other players from around the league did over the weekend.
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