DALLAS – A detail on the second winning buzzer-beater of Kyrie Irving‘s career has surprised the eight-time All-Star guard.
“I thought I got a little closer in the paint, but I looked after the game and I was pretty far away,” Irving said after throwing a contested left-handed hook to give the ball away. Dallas Mavericks a 107-105 victory Sunday afternoon against the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
The exact distance from the buzzer, according to Second Spectrum tracking, was 20.1 feet. It was the second-longest hook shot by a player this season, according to NBA.com play-by-play data.
“Hell of a shot from Kyrie,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone, whose team fell to 47-21, falling within a half-game of the score. Oklahoma City Thunder in the race for first place in the Western Conference. “Give him all the credit.”
The longest hook this season? That was also the case for Irving, when he scored one from the top of the key in a Jan. 3 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. That right-handed shot was actually an accident, an errant lofted pass intended for the center Derek Lively II Fortunately, it went through the hoop.
Irving credited hours in the gym working on his end for the dramatic game-winner, which resulted in him being mobbed by Mavericks teammates and minority owner Mark Cuban at half-court. He entered the game 38 of 87 on left-handed shots this season, many of which were high-difficulty finishes in the paint. The average distance of those left-handed attempts was 4.7 feet, with the longest being 15 feet, according to Second Spectrum tracking.
But it seemed natural for Irving, who had 24 points and nine assists in the victory, to throw a left hook after completing a baseline screen and catching the inside pass from Maxi Kléber with 2.8 seconds remaining. With the Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic Switched on him, Irving took two hard left-handed dribbles toward the elbow to create just enough space to lift the hook shot.
“Man, the majority of it is instinctual and comes from preparing for hours that no one sees,” Irving said. “I saw a Jokic take away my pull-up going to the left. I knew he was going to go up, but I didn’t know he was going to commit like that, so he forced me to get in the 3-point line. As soon as I felt him behind me, I was like, ‘Oh, I have my left hand. It’s wide open, so why not go for it?”
It was a buzzer-beater that impressed even Mavs co-star Luka Doncicthe NBA scoring leader who gained a reputation for making ridiculously difficult shots.
“That shot was amazing, man,” said Doncic, who had 37 points in his return after missing Thursday’s loss to the Thunder because of left hamstring soreness. “I couldn’t believe it.”
On a rare off day for Jokic, who finished with 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting and seven assists, Dallas took its largest lead of the afternoon when Irving assisted Doncic for a lay-up. up that allowed the Mavs to take a 13-point lead with 6:50 remaining. The Nuggets rallied to take the lead Jamal MurrayIt’s tiebreaker 3 with 27.1 seconds left.
Doncic tied it again by hitting a 29-foot-3 catch-and-shoot on the inside pass on the ensuing possession after a timeout.
“I give him a lot of credit and getting us to that position and then getting me the game-winner at the end,” Irving said of Doncic.
The Mavs ran the same inbounds play coming out of a timeout after Murray missed a mid-range pull-up. With the Nuggets shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope denying Doncic above the top of the arc, Kleber read that Irving had an advantage and delivered the pass.
“He is very talented and gifted [with] two hands and he makes crazy plays like that, so that’s exactly what he does,” Kleber said. “But it’s still an incredible shot, so obviously you’re going to be in a little bit of shock once let him come in.”
After the shot, Irving responded by looking exaggeratedly at his left hand as he strutted toward teammates rushing toward him, celebrating a moment that could prove crucial in Dallas’ attempt to avoid the play-in scenario . The Mavs (39-29), who have won five of six, are a few points behind sixth place. Kings of Sacramento (38-28) in the West rankings.
“He’s a magician,” Mavs center Daniel Gafford said. “He’s a very crafty finisher, but finishing somewhere that far around the basket? I don’t know if he’s working on something like that, but I know he’s working on his left hand. It went in and then we went crazy.”
