NBA Clutch Encounters — 2/17/2021

Banner night for close NBA games. Nice to see after a bunch of horrible blowouts to start the year. SIX(!) close games in one night.

Rockets vs 76ers

Well this one shouldn’t have been all that close, but the Sixers blew a huge 4th quarter lead to make it close at the end. We start with PHI leading 108–99. Wall runs an iso on Danny Green. No dice, so he resets with Gordon. He actually makes quite a nice play and draws four (4) defenders to him. Rockets swing it around and Wall hits a three. GOOD PLAY. 108–102 Sixers lead.

Philly decides to run one of the best plays in basketball: and Embiid post-up. Good idea? Yes. Makes a nice spin move and lays it in easily. 110–108.

Wall does the same thing against Green as the last possession. Fails again and resets this time with Boogie. And instead of trying shit, he chucks up a three and buries it. Sixers lead 110–105. OH NO EMBIID TURNED IT OVER. Gordon gets a WIDE open three and misses.

Yikes.

But Green commits an offensive foul. Seth Curry fouls Wall as he drives to the rim. That Gordon miss looms large as Wall misses a FT. 110–106.

Embiid runs another isolation on Cousins. No help from HOU. And Embiid buries a shot in Cousins’ face. TOUGH SCENE.

And that was really it for Houston. They started from too far back and they couldn’t really recover from that Gordon miss. Philly survives a scare.

Nuggets vs Wizards

Quite possibly the game of the night. We start with WAS leading 123–117. Wizards try to get Beal open but he decided to flop on the ground and Westbrook resorts to a Pick/Roll with Robin Lopez. They decide to double Westbrook in the midrange (Russ finished with 12 points so a questionable decision). Lopez is left wide open and Westbrook feeds him. But he’s Robin Lopez so he blows the dunk. BAD PLAY!

Murray pushes it in transition and gets fouled. SMART PLAY! 123–119.

This time Beal is not on the ground so they run a play through him. Except Murray denies Beal the ball brilliantly and they’re back to a 1–2 game with Westbrook and Lopez. Westbrook is forced to take a contested 3 as the clock runs down. Can you guess what happened? Still 123–119.

Murray/Jokic game the other way, which feels like a slight upgrade. They switch and Lopez, well, Robin Lopez does this. 123–122.

This time, I promise the Wizards acutally are able to run a play with Beal. He gets a switch onto JaMychal Green. But Murray recovers well. And even though the Wizards have a 2-on-1 on the baseline, the Nuggets actually play this well. They force Beal to reset, and he can only get a really tough layup chance. And he hits it, because he’s Beal. Tip of the cap — 125–122.

They run a Murray/Jokic game, Murray gets doubled, Jokic open for three! Short.

Somehow from that, the Nuggets get extremely confused defensively, are pointing all over the place and Jokic is stuck on Westbrook.

Surely Mr. Westbrook will blow by him, right? Decides to do a hesitation pull-up and misses. Granted there was help at the rim, but that just means Bertans was wide open on the other side of the court — on a night where he had 35.

Westbrook misread the play. Actually bad!

Murray/Jokic pick-and-roll, again. Murray almost loses it trying to split the double, but ends up in Jokic’s hands. Jokic passes to Porter because Westbrook was creeping in on the action. Westbrook deflects it, ends up in MPJ’s hands, who fires up a horrible 3 — I mean, there’s three guys on him — instead of doing literally anything else.

He misses. Jokic was not impressed. But, tbh, Nuggets got lucky twice on that possession. Just a mess all-around.

Wizards can seal a win here. Beal easily beats his man, but Green with a GREAT block. Nuggets in business. Murray flying in transition, sees the Wizards recover well, cuts to the 3pt-line. And he’s just kind of open.

Cash. What a great play by Green and then Murray. 125–125.

Nuggets sub in Campazzo for defense. They run a pick-and-roll with Beal and Lopez. Beal is doubled, he just gets it off to Lopez, who makes a phenomenal, and I mean PHENOMENAL play to touch pass it to an open Bertans as MPJ was helping.

He misses, but is fouled by Green. Was actually a decent recovery by Green, just was too close. Nuggets announcer was big mad, but was definitely a foul. Bertans hits all three FTs. 8.8 seconds left. 128–125 Wizards lead.

Wizards used a foul-to-give, so Denver actually only has 5.9 seconds. They run a designed screen with Murray and Jokic. Beal thinks they’re switching. Hachimura thinks they are most definitely not.

But the pass takes Murray too far away and Washington gets away with it. But then Murray just does a little cross-over and pulls up FROM THE LOGO.

Absolute wildman. And he buries it. Man the Nuggets are hard to guard down the stretch. 2.1 seconds left. 128–128.

Washington runs a screen to get Beal on Jokic. Beal drives past him (note there were only 2.1 seconds left, to show how impressive this was). And Beal is fouled by Green with no time left! Oh boy! Was a clear foul, too. Beal hits both FTs and that’s the game. Wizards win 130–128.

Pistons vs Bulls

No.

Heat vs Warriors

We start with a steal by Curry, and Heat leading 103–101. In transition, Curry is defended by Butler. Drives by him, but the layup was pretty tough and misses. Slow to get back, but Curry gets away with it.

Herro floats a pass to Bam who was defended by Steph. Bad matchup! Paschall tries to help, Curry tries his best. Bam dunks. 105–101.

This is why you run back on defence, kids! No Draymond Green in this game, by the way.

Curry tries to run a pick-and-roll to get Robinson to switch, but they just double him, and Curry is forced to give it up to Bazemore. Warriors really have no talent out there. You Hate To See It. But Bazemore drives and finishes the layup around Bam?! 105–103.

Heat run a Bam post-up. The Big Man is Back in Basketball. He misses a wild hook shot. Guess The Big Man is Not Back.

Curry gets a switch onto Nunn. But they double him and Curry is forced to give it up to Bazemore. Man the Warriors really have no talent out there. You Hate To See It. Oh my God, he actually did it again! 105–105.

Is Bam overrated? Is Bazemore the best finisher in the game? Is this Bazemore’s team? Tough to say.

Now Miami runs a two-man game with Butler/Bam. Warriors play it exceptionally well and Butler can only get a fadeaway off. Miss.

Warriors can end it. Steph/Bazemore game, they double Steph for some reason and leave Bazemore open! No way! Curry to Bazemore! Ah, this time Herro rotates and forces a pass to Oubre for an open three. smh. Still 105–105.

Miami doesn’t take a timeout. And they actually get an open, but tough Nunn floater at the buzzer out of the chaos.

Overtime. Could Nunn have gotten it to Bam? Possibly, but it would’ve been super tight.

Ovetime wasn’t all that close, but we are gonna talk about the game-ender. It’s 115–112 for Golden State. 32.6 seconds left. One stop and there’s hope. Otherwise it’s game over.

Why do arenas have Twitter accounts? Regardless, that’s a classic Steph 3 to end it. Warriors win 120–112. Yes I skipped a bunch of close games, but no ones’s reading this anyways.