Max Strus had himself a fourth quarter on Tuesday, hitting five 3-pointers, tying his career high for a single quarter, over the final three minutes and change of the fourth quarter — with the final one being a buzzer-beating bomb from beyond half court that drew nothing but net as the Cleveland Cavaliers shocked the Dallas Mavericks, 121-119.
What’s more gut-wrenching for the Mavericks is they had just connected on what appeared to be their own game-winner. In a chaotic sequence, Luka Doncic took a tipped inbounds pass that fortuitously opened the floor for him to drive unimpeded into the paint as two Cavaliers defenders went for the loose ball and played themselves out of position.
Doncic drew Jarrett Allen up as he breached the paint, then found new Dallas addition P.J. Washington on a dump-off pass along the baseline for a layup and one-point lead with 2.6 seconds remaining.
The Cavs were out of timeouts. All they could do was inbound the ball and throw up a prayer. Which Strus did. And somehow, it was answered.
The shot goes down as a 59-footer (yeah, I’m going to round up) — the second-longest game-winner of the 3-point era, which dates back to the 1979-80 season.
Indeed, this was a prayer of a shot. But the Cavs did do the best they could with the time they had. First off, Strus knew he didn’t have any timeouts. That seems like an obvious thing, but in the heat of the moment, after a chaotic sequence, it would be easy to lose your head for a split second and signal for a timeout in effect ending the game with a technical foul. Strus didn’t do that. He was 1-for-1 on good decisions.
Second, Strus didn’t try for a full-court pass. The chances of a Hail Mary like that landing cleanly enough for someone to catch and shoot in any sort of realistic manner in under three seconds are beyond slim. Good decision number two.
Instead, Strus inbounded quickly to Mobley, and then, instead of standing around, he followed his pass at a full sprint to cut down the distance of the heave. That’s not a good decision….
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