Derek Fisher is Clutch

This game might have had one of the most amazing finishes in playoff history, and probably the greatest final second ever.

With about 10 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Spurs were down by 1 point and were inbounding the ball. It was inbounded to Tim Duncan, who after having no luck of finding an open teammate dribbled it to the top of the key and drained a leaning jumper over Shaq while falling down himself, and leaving 0.4 seconds left on the clock. The entire Spurs bench and the stadium erupted with cheers as they thought they had captured game five.

Unlike the Spurs who had 10 seconds to pull of something spectacular the Lakers had 0.4 seconds to get another field goal, that’s when Derek Fisher stepped up for the Lakers. Right after Tim Duncan made his unbelieveable shot there was a series of 3 straight full timeouts, first by the Los Angeles Lakers to set up a play, then by the Spurs, then again by the Lakers. When the players returned to the court they set up the play that Phil Jackson had drawn up. The inbounds pass which was meant for Shaq and Kobe but the pass couldn’t reach either of them as they were well guarded. So the ball went into the hands of Derek Fisher who caught the ball in the air and launched the shot with exactly than 0.4 seconds left on the gameclock.

Swish… That’s when the entire arena fell silent, the Spurs players and coaching staff not being able to grasp what had just happened, and Derek Fisher sprinting off the court before the officials had a chance to call the shot off. The shot wasn’t called off and that game was showed on ESPN classics just a week after it had aired live. You can check out the highlight of the shot at youtube; video

To see the boxscore for game 5 of the Lakers vs. Spurs series click here and to read the recap of the same game click here.