Kawhi Leonard received the inbound pass from James Harden with 21.6 seconds left in the overtime. With the Clippers down by one, the opportunity to win the game was placed in Leonard’s capable hands.
Leonard held the basketball seemingly forever, his eyes focused on Keegan Murray defending in front him, his shoulders square. He took his first dribble with six seconds remaining, each dribble taking more seconds off the clock, before moving to his right.
Leonard then spun to his left and took a left-handed shot over Murray and Jonas Valanciunas, the ball hitting the heel of the rim, then the front of the rim before settling into the net as the buzzer blared, sending the Clippers to a thrilling 111-110 win over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night at Intuit Dome.
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Leonard’s last-second shot came at the behest of Clippers assistant coach Brian Shaw, who took over Tyronn Lue after the head coach left the arena before the game because of back pain.
“Just trying to run down the clock, get the last shot,” said Leonard, who finished with 17 points. “BShaw wanted me to shoot the last shot with the time expiring, and that’s what was going through my process, trying to get the court organized and (I) was able to do that.”
Up to that point, Leonard had missed 12 of 18 shots from the field.
Still, Shaw and Leonard’s teammates had faith in him.
“That last time out, we’re down one and we crossed everybody over the top to throw the ball to Kawhi at the free-throw line,” Shaw said. “I told him to make sure that he takes the last shot. So, win or lose, we’re going to go down having the ball last. … He was just holding the ball patiently, got to his spot. I wasn’t expecting a left hand, whatever you want to call that. But he got it done and I’m happy it went in.”
The Clippers needed Leonard to rescue them after DeMar DeRozan made two free throws with 21.6 seconds left to put them down 110-109. But Leonard came through, his teammates mobbing him after the shot in celebration.
James Harden had 29 points, nine rebounds and 11 assists, and Ivica Zubac had 22 points and 14 rebounds. DeMar DeRozan led the Kings (33-30) with 31 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
The win allowed the Clippers (35-29) to remain in eighth in the Western Conference, behind the seventh-place Minnesota and sixth-place Golden State.
“We need these wins down the stretch,” Leonard said. “I think this will help us be a better team moving forward. So, us getting that win, everybody was excited.”
That Leonard was playing so late in the overtime was also notable. He had left the game with 3:56 remaining in the five-minute extra frame, but returned with 1:59 to go.
He was resolute in his desire to finish the game for his teammates.
“I wanted to play,” said Leonard, who played more than 40 minutes. “I’m kind of capped on the minutes’ base. But, I mean, 36 is a lot of minutes. But it was just about me just wanting to finish that game. They told me they were going to sit me for a minute [in overtime] and bring me back, so just itching to get back in and didn’t want to sit.”
The Clippers play their next three games on the road against New Orleans, Miami and Atlanta.
The hope is that Lue will make the trip, but it’s still uncertain.
“He was watching at home,” Shaw said. “They FaceTimed him after the game was over and he looked like he was having a heart attack, feeling the same way that we felt out there, not knowing how it was going to go. But he was happy for us and we all are wishing that the pain that he’s dealing with in his back goes away and we can get him back ASAP.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
LA Times
