TORONTO — Before unfurling the shot that eradicated every shot before it Sunday night, Kawhi Leonard took one last, long stride to create the distance he needed to separate himself from Joel Embiid’s towering 7-foot frame before turning and fading backward from 20 feet. In the three seconds that time stopped for nearly 20,000 people, you could feel the span of 18 years, when Vince Carter missed the same jumper against the same team in the same situation, Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, in almost the same spot, the same way. Like Carter, Leonard faded and fell out of bounds. When the ball bounced off the front of the rim and the buzzer sounded, Leonard and Embiid stood beside each other, melding into a crowd of onlookers that stared as so many fates hung in the balance: the Sixers, who made two blockbuster trades for the right to show Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris why they should be the ones paying them; Leonard and the Raptors, who will have their free-agency conversation this July; and the teammates and staffers who will feel the ripples of those decisions. The ball bounced off the front of the rim again, and Leonard crouched to the floor, almost as though he was trying to will the ball to drop into the rim. It was an impossible shot then. It’s an impossible shot today. But Leonard put the Raptors on the right side of impossible. Like a grain of sand, the ball hit the back rim twice and dropped through the net. Leonard leapfrogged back up, falling into his teammates’ arms, celebrating an Eastern Conference finals berth with a 92-90 victory, while a heartbroken Embiid crumbled into the arms of mentor-turned-opponent Marc Gasol. Kawhi Leonard and his teammates watch as the ball bounces around the rim before falling through as time expires Sunday in Game 7. (AP) “As painful as it feels now, it’ll help him,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “It’ll help shape his career. It’ll help give him greater clarity of what this time of the year represents. All the stuff that has to accrue over many months that will one day lead to the ability to one day be a champion. It’s hard. It’s hard to be the last man standing.” Story continues Embiid was the recipient of another kind of playoff torch, one Leonard knows all too well: a summer of regret. Leonard’s shot didn’t only eradicate the Raptors’ tortured playoff past — it turned his own, both new and old, into ancient history. Six years ago, Leonard lined up at the free-throw line for two shots that could have sealed a championship for the San Antonio Spurs. But with a two-point lead and 19.4 seconds left on the clock, he split them, giving Ray Allen and the Miami Heat the opening they needed to tie the game and complete one of the most improbable comebacks in Finals history in overtime. Sunday night, Leonard found himself in the same situation: at the free-throw line, with 10.8 seconds remaining and a one-point lead. But he canned the first free throw and clanked the front iron on the second. The Sixers corralled the rebound, and, to make matters worse, Leonard crashed the boards instead of getting back on defense, allowing Jimmy Butler to surge up the floor for a game-tying layup. Public perception paints Leonard as emotionless, almost robotic, an animatronic and even-keeled curation of perfect basketball traits. But he was, in his words, “very mad” that he missed the free throw and that he didn’t get back in transition defense. “After that,” he continued, “I was just like, whatever play [coach Nick Nurse] drew up, I'm about to get to my spot and shoot it. Shoot it with confidence. Things happen for a reason, I guess, and it went down.” What’s impressive about Leonard isn’t that he’s emotionless. It’s that he filters emotion like he does information: productively and quickly. This is, after all, the guy who told reporters he was looking forward to returning to San Antonio — where he was inevitably going to be booed every time he touched the ball — because the experience might give him something new to learn. When Leonard walked up to the podium after hitting the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA history, the man who usually gives up the bare minimum offered some rare insight into how the wheels turn behind the mind of the best player in the conference — and maybe the world. “We ran a similar play during the Magic series, and I ended up just catching and shooting the ball. It was probably like three seconds,” Leonard said. “So I just remembered that moment and knowing I had time, at least, to pump-fake or take a dribble. So [Nurse] drew up the play again tonight and there was four seconds left. Remembering that moment, I knew I had some time to try to get some space rather than just catch-and-shoot the ball. I ended up catching it and just trying to get to a space so I could get a shot off. Embiid was guarding me. He's taller, longer than me. So I ended up finding a spot that I like, that I work on. Then I just knew I had to shoot it high. A couple possessions before that, I had the same kind of shot from three and ended up coming short. I just thought I had to put it up even higher than that. Ended up getting a soft touch and going in.” The rest is history. From regret to self-regulation to redemption, in the span of 10.8 seconds. More from Yahoo Sports:<doc-sep>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 Leonard ended the Philadelphia 76ers' season with a buzzer-beater that will be remembered forever by NBA fans as it bounced off the rim a number of times before falling in and giving the Toronto Raptors a 92-90 Game 7 victory. The arena seemed to go silent as the ball bounced off the rim and then the place exploded as the ball fell through the hoop. It gave Leonard 41 points for the game and it instantly became the biggest shot in franchise history. The Raptors advance to face the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals, but for right now it's all about that shot and how everyone was in awe of it. First, the shot: Look where he watched it from: Look at his raw emotion: LeBron and other players loved it: Magic Johnson was impressed: Twitter went nuts: Follow For The Win's Andy Nesbitt on Twitter @anezbitt.<doc-sep>McCollum and the Blazers Snapped Postseason Losing Streak for "Jennifer" Stars Invest in Plant-Based Food as Vegetarianism Sweeps NBA The NBA Got Some Wild Techs This Season Jarrett Allen Is One of the NBA’s Hottest Rim Protectors Wade's Jersey Swaps Created Epic Moments This Season Westbrook Makes History While Honoring Nipsey Hussle Devin Booker Makes History with Scoring Tear 29 Years Ago, Jordan Dropped Career-High 69 Points Bosh Is Getting His Jersey Raised to the Rafters in Miami Steph Returns to Houston for 1st Time Since His Moon Landing Troll Lou Williams Is Coming for a Repeat of Sixth Man of the Year Pat Beverley Has the Clippers Stealing the LA Shine LeBron Keeps Shredding NBA Record Books Young's Hot Streak Is Heating Up the ROY Race with Luka LeBron and 2 Chainz Form a Superteam to Release a New Album Wade's #OneLastDance Dominated February Warriors Fans Go Wild After Unforgettable Moments with Steph Eight Years Ago, the Nuggets Traded Melo to the Knicks Two Years Ago, the Kings Shipped Boogie to the Pelicans ASG Will Be Competitive Again If the NBA Raises the Stakes Right Arrow Icon The Toronto Raptors acquired Kawhi Leonard for moments just like this. The Raptors defeated the Philadelphia 76ers 92-90 in Game 7 of their second-round series Sunday, and Leonard dealt the decisive blow as time expired. He hit a fadeaway jumper from the right corner over Sixers center Joel Embiid. The ball bounced four times off the rim before going down. Leonard had a game-high 41 points to go along with eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. The Raptors are now through to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second time in franchise history. They'll play the Milwaukee Bucks, with Game 1 set for Wednesday in Milwaukee.<doc-sep>
Kawhi Leonard capped off an amazing series against the Sixers with a game-winning buzzer beater to give the Raptors a 92-90 win in Game 7. It's the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA history and finished what was a 41-point performance for Leonard. Of course, it also got the Raptors over a very large hump against the 76ers. Amid criticism of the Raptors' previous postseason appearances, Leonard was outstanding all series. He averaged 34.7 points per game, bookended the series with 40-plus point games and hit a shot in crunch time that few players would be able to. On Monday's "Off the Bench," Danny Kanell and Raja Bell look into Leonard's miracle shot and what it means for the Raptors going forward. They also take a look back at the series that was, and why Leonard makes this team different. "This definitely elevates Kawhi into the greater conversation of clutch and legacy... first Game 7 buzzer-beater ever. This is gonna elevate him into that superstar stratosphere for sure, if he wasn't already there," Kanell said. Looking at the big picture, the numbers show that Leonard is having one of the best postseasons in NBA history. "This is the third highest-scoring series of an NBA player ever," Bell said. "Only behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan, and he's only three points behind Michael Jordan. That in and of itself has him in a very rare air." Bell and Kanell went on to downplay the Kawhi Leonard vs. Kobe Bryant debate that sprung up earlier in this series, while also talking about the Raptors and their need to show more depth on offense. Listen to the full episode and subscribe on Spotify, Stitcher or iTunes.