With lower than a minute left in regulation on Monday evening, the Philadelphia 76ers had simply come off of a 14-6 run to take a 101-96 lead over the Knicks, and appeared set to flee from New York with an upset victory in Sport 2 of their first-round sequence.
Then pandemonium broke out. As a result of what adopted was what very effectively would possibly go down as probably the most chaotic end of the whole NBA playoffs: Thee Knicks scored 6 factors in about 14 seconds of recreation time to tug a reverse Reggie Miller and end off the Sixers.
After Jalen Brunson bought simply concerning the luckiest bounce you’re ever going to see on a second-chance three, the Knicks managed to steal the inbounds go, get one other offensive rebound, and permit Donte DiVincenzo to hit his second 3-point try of the sport to retake a lead they wouldn’t relinquish once more, occurring to win 104-101 after two subsequent OG Anunoby free-throws.
Significantly, watch this clip — or when you’re Philly fan, don’t — as a result of there are roughly 10 moments the place your mind won’t be able to course of how the Knicks simply bought the ball or had a shot go in:
Mike Breen even needed to give that second Donte three the not often used double bang:
In a end like this, there’ll all the time be controversy, and on this case will probably be not simply the physicality of that final sequence underneath the glass, however that Philadelphia head coach Nick Nurse claims he known as timeout and the referees ignored him because the Knicks unleashed their particular model of Madison Sq. Mayhem:
However ramifications of these complaints, if any, apart: what’s even crazier is that Brunson boinking that three in on an evening he principally couldn’t hit something — he completed with 24 factors on 29 makes an attempt — might be nonetheless not probably the most unfortunate bounce Philadelphia has confronted within the playoffs within the final decade.
That honor goes to Kawhi Leonard’s series-deciding four-bouncer within the 2019 Japanese Convention semifinals:
There are two classes right here, one for Sixers followers, and one for everybody else.
For the Philly trustworthy: I’m sorry, but it surely actually does seem that if God has not forsaken you, the Basketball Gods at the least have.
And for everybody else: You’re by no means out of a recreation towards the Sixers. Historical past tells us that you simply simply must hope your franchise star can get the ball on the rim late, and it’ll have the possibility to tear out the hearts of everybody in The Metropolis of Brotherly Love.
