Jalen Rose Couldn't Believe His Eyes As He Watched Erik Spoelstra Pull A Chris Webber To Lose The Game Against The Pistons
For all the flack about the NBA Cup, the opening night sure did sneaky deliver. The Hawks went into Boston as massive underdogs and pulled out the 1 point win, the Knicks went into Philly and ruined Embiid's debut, the Bucks finally won a real basketball game, overall it's been a pretty solid night of entertainment.
But nothing compares to what we saw in Detroit between the Heat and Pistons. Yes, that is a real sentence. I would argue we saw something so rare, that it was like seeing a basketball version of Halley's Comet. Forget about what happened in the previous 47:58 of this game. That doesn't matter. What matters is the final 1.8
NBA Cup basketball baby!!! Nothing like it!!!
OK, there's a lot to digest here. For starters, I love this inbounds play from JB Bickerstaff. You see it from time to time when a team is in a position like this where first and foremost you're looking for something at the rim so you don't have to worry about a guy putting the ball on the floor. Quick and to the point. Tough scene for Bam for doing all that crying about DPOY and not realizing he was about to be backscreened for the game winning bucket, that's tough.
The throw by Cade couldn't have been more perfect, and that's the risk you run by not guarding the inbounder. What's the point of Herro turning his back and defending the pass that way? Why not jump in front of the guy with your hands up to try and challenge the lob? How can you not know the lob is coming in that spot when Jalen Duren is awesome at catching lobs? If that's how MIA wanted to defend that play, they deserve what happened.
Of course, the craziest part of this clip isn't the successful lob, that shit happens all the time. You know what never happens? Spo calling a timeout when he doesn't have a timeout which then loses them the game. I'd say Spo is largely considered the best coach in the NBA, so what the hell happened there? Did an assistant give him the wrong timeout total or something? Was he under the impression he had one to burn? Imagine the hot seat of that guy if that's the case. Otherwise, what a brain fart by a guy who you would NEVER expect to make a mistake like that. It's almost like his black magic finally ran out.
Not only did this game give us this great moment, it also blessed us with an all time gif from Jalen Rose who couldn't believe what was happening in real time
That pretty much sums it up perfectly. I feel like this is how we all looked as we watched this unfold in the moment. The fact that Spo pulled a Chris Webber with Jalen Rose in the stands is some straight out of a movie shit. The kind of sequence of events that people wouldn't believe if you told them. The Basketball Gods certainly did not disappoint.
Not to sound like a broken record, but this is example #23586834576 of why I'll never understand the people who say the NBA is a boring product. What the hell are you guys watching? Every single night is something crazy, and tonight is no different.