I saw Isiah Thomas score 16 points in 90 seconds in a playoff game. I saw the Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets, 186-184 in a multiple-overtime thriller. I saw The Pass that Larry Bird stole. I saw Thomas again, this time scoring 22 points in the third quarter of an NBA Finals game. I saw Jerry Stackhouse go off for nearly 60 points.
All that and more, and what I saw last night ranks right up there.
The Pistons were down three points with 1.5 seconds remaining. And they didn't have the ball. And the ball was being inbounded in their half of the court.
And they ended up winning the game.
Of course, I'm leaving out the main reason why: Rasheed Wallace's 60+ foot heave that smacked off the glass backboard and straight into the twine as time expired. But first the Pistons had to steal the inbounds pass, and thanks to Tayshaun Prince, they did that -- albeit probably due to a rather lazy effort by the Nuggets, who rightly figured they had this one in the left hand column.
That same situation could be played out a thousand times and I don't know that you'd see what happened last night at the Palace more than once, if at all.
Overtime was almost anti-climactic, but the Pistons prevailed, 113-109.
If Wallace's heroics had occurred in a playoff game, it would be talked about for years. Kind of like Chauncey Billups' half-court prayer to extend Game 5 of the 2004 Eastern Finals against the Nets. The Pistons lost that one, though.
Being an old fart, after Wallace's shot, I immediately thought about Jerry West's half-courter to tie the Knicks in an NBA Finals game. No three-pointer back then, or else West's shot would have been a game-winner.
But what made Wallace's shot so amazing wasn't just the shot itself. It was the circumstances. Teams with three-point leads AND the ball, and inbounding in their opponent's half of the court, aren't supposed to lose. Ever. Yet the Nuggets did.
The win was important for the Pistons, but the loss was even more important for the Nuggets. They haven't clinched a playoff berth yet, and every win is precious for them at this point.
I thought Denver coach George Karl's reaction, caught on replay by the FSD cameras, was priceless. Kind of like, "What am I supposed to say after THAT?"
Another old fart alert: after the Saints' Tom Dempsey beat the Lions with a 63-yard field goal at the final gun in 1970, Lions coach Joe Schmidt said, "Well, what can you say after something like that? You take a left turn and head home."
I don't think Karl would disagree that he couldn't have said it better himself.
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