Patty Mills was so close. He envisioned the shot, the glory of winning a pivotal Game 5 in the Western Conference Semifinals for the San Antonio Spurs. Up went the shot...going...going...good! The Australian point guard was the unlikely hero of the playoffs on Tuesday night! There was just one, small issue: the buzzer sounded before the ball was out of his hands - in other words, over time instead of immediate victory.
So close, but too late
The Spurs began their possession with 11.1 seconds left on the clock, tied with the Houston Rockets 101-101 with the winner taking a 3-2 lead in the series.
Mills started with the ball and moved from left to right as he crossed half court, apparently determined to take the possession on without any help. Clearly, he didn't have a good sense of the time left on the clock. As James Harden switched on to him, the seconds continued to count down, with Mills in no position to take his shot.
Mills made a good move to shake Harden and throw up a wild shot, which miraculously banked in for the three-point bucket and the game winner. But Rockets players immediately shook their hands and declared the basket no good, something even the Spurs seemed able to agree upon on the court. The officials concurred as well and the game went into overtime, a missed opportunity to end things at the conclusion of regulation.
Patty Mills hits game-winner way after buzzer, Gregg Popovich absolutely eviscerates Pau Gasol 😳 pic.twitter.com/C2MmyWTcMQ
— Rob Perez (@World_Wide_Wob) May 10, 2017
Five more minutes
Mills may not have been in the situation at all were it not for a season-ending injury to point guard Tony Parker. With the Frenchman unavailable, Mills has taken over the primary point guard duties. He likely would have searched for his Spurs teammate, Kawhi Leonard, on the final play were it not for an injury that left the MVP candidate somewhat shaken for the entirety of the game.
Nevertheless, victory was in the cards for San Antonio. Danny Green stepped up his game in the overtime period, while the ageless Manu Ginobili blocked a potential game-tying shot from Harden as the buzzer sounded.
Miraculously, the ball made its way into the hands of another Houston player who would've hit the game-winning shot - was it not well after the buzzer once again.
Despite the noticeable gaffe by Mills, the Spurs took a 3-2 series lead as the Western Conference Semifinals headed back to Houston, secure in the knowledge that they had the upper hand to win the series and face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference Finals next week.
