After playing three of their starters 40-plus minutes and fighting for their playoff survival, the Toronto Raptors were staring a 3-0 deficit to the Boston Celtics in the face and were down to the final second. Make that a half-second.
Kemba Walker, who finished the game with 29 points, thought he had iced the game for the Celtics with an assist after finding a cutting Daniel Theis for a go-ahead dunk, leaving just 0.5 seconds on the clock and giving Boston a two-point lead.
With the game clock winding down, Kemba Walker weaves through traffic and delivers a beautiful no-look pass to Daniel Theis to give the Celtics the lead in the final second.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse put the ball into his All-Star point guard’s hands, as Kyle Lowry had the daunting task of finding someone open with 7-foot-5 Tacko Fall guarding the inbounds play.
Somehow, Lowry found OG Anunoby open in the far corner, and the Raptors’ forward hit the franchise’s first buzzer-beater since Kawhi Leonard‘s memorable, series-clinching buzzer-beater to eliminate the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2019 playoffs.
The league’s stars took to Twitter to react to Anunoby’s thrilling winner and the Raptors’ 104-103 win over the Celtics to keep.
CJ McCollum noted how the Oklahoma City Thunder squandered a similar situation Wednesday night in their Game 7 loss to the Houston Rockets.
Who was the happiest person in the bubble aside from Anunoby? That would be Lowry.
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