It was a shot you will see repeated on highlight shows and YouTube for years to come. A shot to win a game and a series. A shot that shouldn’t have gone in, but somehow did. On Sunday night, Kawhi Leonard beat the buzzer with a high-arcing, deep-in-the-corner jump shot that sent the Toronto Raptors past the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinal, 92-90. It took a few beats longer than your standard buzzer-beater, but for fans of anyone but Philadelphia, the wait was worth it. The Background It had been a hard-fought series. The Sixers had seized home-court advantage with a win in Game 2. The Raptors got it back by winning Game 4. The series ultimately headed, seemingly inevitably, to Game 7 in Toronto. Toronto led for much of the game, but never by a large margin. With 1 minute 14 seconds left, the Raptors seemed to take a grip on the series at last, grabbing a 4-point lead.<doc-sep>Kawhi really did that Not to be outdone by Damian Lillard’s shot last round, Kawhi Leonard sent the Raptors through to the Eastern Conference finals with the first ever buzzer-beater in an NBA Game 7. The shot could not have been more dramatic. Leonard was smothered on the play by Ben Simmons and then Joel Embiid, and dribbled all the way around the three-point arc to try to get some space before finally throwing up an off-balance prayer that only fell after bouncing four times on the rim. It was a stunning shot that produced some stunning photography. Here are the 10 best shots of the shot and its aftermath. This is the most viral photo of the shot. You have the concentration on Kawhi’s face, Joel Embiid’s disbelief and Jordan Loyd doing the classic bench guy crouch. Rich Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Images This shot from above captures the moment the ball finally dropped through the rim. Mark Blinch/NBA/Getty Images The video of the shot makes it seem like Kawhi was out of control, but you can see here that he was actually squared up to the hoop when he released the ball. David Dow/NBA/Getty Images Like Paul George before him, Joel Embiid could not have defended this play any better. Ron Turenne/NBA/Getty Images Mark Blinch/NBA/Getty Images David Dow/NBA/Getty Images It was awesome to see the emotion flow out of the usually stoic Kawhi in the ensuing celebration. Rich Madonik/Toronto Star via Getty Images Mark Blinch/NBA/Getty Images Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images I hope the first thing Kawhi buys after he signs his max deal this summer is a 20-foot print of this one. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBA/Getty Images CJ McCollum took over Game 7 This is what makes the Blazers so dangerous. Even when Damian Lillard struggles (13 points on 3-of-17 shooting), Portland has another star guard capable of dominating. CJ McCollum had 37 points in the Blazers’ Game 7 win over the Nuggets, including some real clutch shots in the closing moments. Oh yeah, and he had this crazy block. You have to have some nerve to attack a guy who’s 7'3" Some pretty crazy footage emerged yesterday of Kristaps Porzingis following an altercation at a nightclub in his hometown in Latvia this weekend. His shirt is all ripped up and he’s bleeding from the head. According to ESPN, the Mavs believe Porzingis was jumped by a group of Russians. TMZ adds that the Russians were upset that Porzingis asked to be traded from the Knicks. The best of SI Inside the cut-throat world of competitive intercollegiate meat judging. ... Who is the most fun player to watch in MLB? ... Which NBA system would be the best fit for Zion Williamson? Around the sports world Giants pitcher Derek Holland tore into the team’s front office and said he faked an injury to land on the IL. ... A high school softball player in New York threw a perfect game in which she struck out every batter. ... See Kawhi’s shot called in five different languages. The Padres’ Mother’s Day joke failed horribly Dame was on cloud nine Blink and you’ll miss Aaron Rodgers’s Game of Thrones cameo Classic Marchand Gotta love the Trop This would have broken up a no-hit bid New national high school 100 meters record It’s too bad this didn’t work Dirk won’t find a second career in soccer Of all the people to hit, it just had to be his wife Solution: Make beers $1 permanently What happens when you hit a golf ball 500 mph What a laser beam The NHL always has the most cinematic playoff commercials Not sports A Scottish pizzeria is selling a pie with “spicy aardvark” that’s really a mix of lamb, chicken and beef, but local authorities are investigating anyway. ... One ATV ride down a Long Island highway earned a man 63 different tickets. ... CBS is releasing Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone in black and white. Well played You had to make it brown? I wouldn’t be able to do this either They tried to tell us A good song Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.<doc-sep>The 2019 NBA postseason hit its midway point when Kawhi Leonard’s fadeway from the corner bounced—four times!—and fell through the rim on Sunday. As we await a conference finals of Raptors-Bucks in the East and Trail Blazers–Warriors in the West, our staff takes stock of the best and worst so far, and looks ahead to what’s to come. Describe Kawhi’s game-winner in 150 words or fewer. Dan Devine: Four dribbles; four bounces; forever. Whatever happens for the Raptors the rest of the way, and whatever Leonard decides to do this summer, they and he will always have this. It’s not winning a championship. But that moment—that hearts-in-your-throat pause, the explosion once it plinked through, the exultation of Raptors fans getting 18 years of history off their backs—might not have felt all that far away from one. Jonathan Tjarks: Kawhi is Thanos: “Fun isn’t something one considers when balancing the universe. But this does put a smile on my face.” Rodger Sherman: It might have cost the scientists who engineered Kawhi Leonard $100 billion to install the “quadruple-doink a ball through the hoop” technology, but damn, it was worth it. Haley O’Shaughnessy: Kawhi’s shot felt like returning to your car just in time for it not to be towed. Like making your flight after waking up an hour late, or getting a better grade than expected, or the rain stopping the moment you step outside. The shot shouldn’t have gone in. It was short—short enough that the rim should’ve sent the ball back onto the court and the game into overtime. It wasn’t supposed to be OK, then it worked out anyway. And when you think about it, that’s the stuff that some of the best playoff moments are made of. Justin Verrier: Kawhi’s comments about the shot were predictably robotic. “We work on that every day.” “I was disappointed I missed that free throw [earlier].” “I just wanted to leave it all out on the floor.” But the magic of the moment comes from the result being little more than a total fluke. Leonard may have drilled his movements hundreds of times before, and he may be one of the league’s best fadeaway jump shooters, with the skill and savvy and timing to shoot over the world’s most athletic 7-foot human. But the basket and all of its implications—including the futures of the Sixers, the Raptors, and Leonard himself—literally came down to the way the ball bounced. There’s something special in how simple that is. Paolo Uggetti: Put the soft rims of the Scotiabank Arena in the rafters immediately. D.J. Foster: My brother-in-law is an amateur conspiracy theorist and an NBA fan, which is basically the worst combination of person. His favorite theory, more than frozen envelopes or point-shaving or any other entry-level conspiracy stuff, is that every NBA basketball and rim is infused with magnets, and that Adam Silver is just doing cool Magneto things all the time based on who he wants to win. So, yeah, Kawhi’s game-winner that sat on the rim forever and dropped in absolutely makes me want all the holidays canceled forever. Kawhi’s four-bouncer or Dame’s 37-footer—which was the better playoff game-winner? Sherman: This is not even close!!! Damian Lillard is one of two humans in the sport’s history with the skill and confidence to make launching a 30-footer with a game on the line a somewhat rational decision. I still can’t believe he even attempted that shot—and that he swished it. Kawhi is just one of the thousands forced into a baseline drive and an uncomfortable, heavily contested look with the game on the line, and one of the few lucky enough to see a brick bobble into a game-winner. Game 7 makes Kawhi’s shot more meaningful in the arc of the Raptors’ season, but Dame’s shot is a legend-maker. Verrier: Dame’s. The stakes were much higher for the Raptors, who were not only playing in a do-or-die Game 7, but would have faced the repercussions of their all-in gamble on Kawhi had they gone on to lose in overtime. But, like with the dunk contest, you have to reward intent and execution. Lillard had heard enough of Russell Westbrook’s barking, so he decided to not only try to end the Oklahoma City Thunder’s season right then and there, but to do so from a distance that Westbrook, amid a historically abysmal shooting season, couldn’t even fathom. A lucky bounce or two (or four) is miraculous; forcibly removing your opponent is electrifying. It’s a slight difference, but an important one. Tjarks: Kawhi’s four-bouncer. It was in a Game 7 between two teams with legitimate title aspirations and no guarantee they’ll ever get this far again. If Dame had missed his shot, it would only have delayed the inevitable for OKC. The stakes were so much higher on Sunday. We’ll talk about that shot forever if Jimmy Butler leaves. O’Shaughnessy: I’d pick a favorite child before calling one of these better than the other. They’re different. They’re their own shots. One sailed 37 feet horizontally, the other spent its hang time vertically. Dame’s was beautiful—a good shot, contrary to what one defender may believe. A perfect swish and a perfect reaction. Kawhi’s was imperfect. A clunker. Dame knew his shot was going in; Kawhi, squatting down on the sideline and watching it bounce once, twice, three times, and a fourth before finally relenting, turned into a spectator like the rest of us. I won’t pick because they’re both shots we’ll be telling our kids (even the non-favorite) about forever. Devine: It feels ridiculous not to pick only the second buzzer-beating game/series-winner in NBA playoff history. And yet: I’m going with Dame. There’s just something striking to me about the calm of it all: The way he sizes up Paul George, staring him down, just knowing that he’s got the game in his hand; the ease of the setup and launch (“Pound dribble. Side step. Raise up.”), rendering the defender completely irrelevant to the proceedings; ball hitting net just as the shot clock lights up; the clean splash, the twine popping as the clock hits zero; and Lillard, completely unsurprised by what he’s just wrought, bidding farewell to the vanquished and accepting his teammates’ adulation as if all he’d done was make sure to grab extra napkins with the lunch order, rather than hit one of the most audaciously icy shots of all time. What I’ll remember about Kawhi’s shot is how unbelievable it felt. What I’ll remember about Dame’s is the exact opposite. Foster: Lillard’s game-winner was like if Tupac dropped “Hit ’Em Up” in one take and Biggie had to answer a bunch of questions from reporters immediately afterward. There hasn’t been an NBA beef as spicy as Dame-Russ in a long time, and for it to be handled like that in front of a killer crowd with people pointing to their wrists before it even happened? Good on Toronto for exorcising some playoff demons, but Dame’s game-winner had all the juice. Uggetti: It’s hard to go against what was, essentially, a perfect sequence: Lillard pulling up, the shot going in, his condescendingly waving goodbye to the Thunder, and his giving a deadpan look to the camera while being mobbed by his teammates. Both shots won the series, but even though Leonard’s was in a Game 7, Lillard’s had a flawless execution. Related Kawhi Leonard Delivers the Greatest Moment in Raptors History Who’s the biggest winner of the playoffs so far? Foster: It has to be the Bucks, right? After wasting no time with the Pistons and playing travel agent for Kyrie Irving, the Bucks were able to spend a nice Sunday with their moms watching the Raptors fight tooth and nail in order to escape the 76ers in a grueling Game 7. Milwaukee is well-rested, which matters more than we probably talk about, and is getting back a fresh 180-shooter in Malcolm Brogdon. Scripting an easier path to the Eastern Conference finals would have been tough to do. Verrier: The Knicks. Despite a wretched run under James Dolan, the Knicks have a long and storied history dotted with some of the NBA’s best moments.<doc-sep>
Early on in Sunday’s Game 7 between the Raptors and Sixers, TNT announcer Kevin Harlan deemed the winner-take-all matchup one that “only a mother could love,” a reference to the horrendous shooting display the teams put on in the early going. Somewhat surprisingly, Kawhi Leonard — arguably the best player of this postseason so far, who came into Game 7 averaging 34 points and shooting 57 percent for the series — was part of the lackluster shot-making for a considerable chunk of the game. The Toronto star logged an uncharacteristically high volume, taking 30 shots through three quarters, making only 10. But then came the fourth period, and with it Leonard’s miraculous game-winning shot that, by bouncing off the rim four times before falling into the basket, not only saved Toronto’s season, but also could set off a chain of events that may alter the NBA landscape. From ABC News: Toronto Raptors score buzzer-beater to win Game 7 We should be clear here: Leonard wasn’t shooting well during the first three quarters, but his struggles stemmed from Philadelphia finally putting its foot down and aggressively pressuring him, sometimes sending an early double-team at him to either force the ball out of his hands or force him to shoot over two defenders at once. (We wrote earlier in the series that the Sixers would likely try that strategy at some point, given that Leonard ranked as the NBA’s least-efficient wing player when he was blitzed or trapped in pick-and-roll plays.) Beyond that, there were many possessions on Sunday during which the other four Raptors simply didn’t have much going when Kawhi wasn’t taking matters into his own hands. Yes, Kyle Lowry made several hustle plays (particularly on the offensive glass) that stood out. And Serge Ibaka, with his 17 points on 10 shots, was an enormous help. But Leonard still had an outsize amount of weight on his shoulders from an offensive standpoint. And as such, he looked to shoot more than normal, with his usually sparkling efficiency taking a hit because of it. But similar to Stephen Curry — who was objectively awful in the first halves of Games 5 and 6 against Houston this past week before going scorched earth in the final periods — Leonard saved his best for last on Sunday. After logging a 4-of-14 third quarter, Leonard drilled 6 of 9 attempts for 15 points in the fourth. He ultimately finished with 41 points on the day. Of course, no shot was bigger than the rainbow-arcing 21-footer that caught every part of the iron, which will be talked about in Toronto — and across the league — for years to come. To give the show some context, it was the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA playoff history. The attempt had no business going in, with Leonard completely off-balance, falling far to his right in the corner as he let the ball go. He said he lofted the shot as high as he could to get it over the outstretched arm of center Joel Embiid, who contested the jumper. When the shot fell through, the usually stoic Leonard was shouting and ecstatic, while Embiid, generally loud and brash, was reduced to tears after playing through various illnesses this series just to come up short. Recency bias might lead some to say this shot was more impressive than the 37-footer that Damian Lillard knocked in to eliminate the Oklahoma City Thunder. It almost certainly wasn’t. Leonard’s shot had a high degree of difficulty because of the Embiid contest, but it was still a long 2-pointer from the corner. Second Spectrum, which tracks a shot’s probability, gave Leonard’s try a 32.1 percent chance of going down. By contrast, Second Spectrum data suggests that the average player would hit Lillard’s buzzer-beating attempt only 12.6 percent of the time. But there’s an argument to be made that Leonard’s shot could end up affecting the league more, at least in the near future. For one, reports say that Sixers coach Brett Brown’s job could potentially be on the line now as a result of the series loss. That, on the surface, seems utterly ridiculous given how close the Sixers were to advancing. Philadelphia’s starters got only 10 regular-season games together and pieced together good net ratings against the Raptors in this latest series. The real problem with the club — which went all-in this season with two huge midseason trades — is its lack of depth.