The Chicago Bulls trailed the Charlotte Hornets 108-100 with under 50 seconds remaining on Saturday night… and won the game 116-115 (the Hornets had a 99.8% win probability with 45 seconds left).
Chicago’s Zach LaVine scored nine points in the final minute, 49 points overall in the game, and went a ridiculous 13-of-17 on three-pointers. His 13th three-pointer was a buzzer-beater to complete a crazy final sequence.
After Charlotte got a pair of free throws from Devonte Graham to go up 115-110 with 14.7 seconds left, the Bulls’ Tomas Saturansky made a three with 7.1 seconds remaining. LaVine then stole the ensuing inbounds pass, and dribbled back to the three-point line to drill a fadeaway triple to give Chicago a 116-115 lead with 00.3 seconds remaining. That would serve as the game-winner.
The wild sequence to conclude the game featured an amazing call from Hornets play-by-play man Eric Collins on Fox Sports Southeast.
https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1198428608727060480
“OH! NO! YOU’RE KIDDING!”
And here’s how it sounded on the Bulls broadcast on NBC Sports Chicago:
The 13 three-pointers are tied for the second-most in NBA history, behind only Klay Thompson.
Full highlights of LaVine’s performance:
LaVine entered this game in the national headlines, after he had an early trip to the bench in Chicago’s loss to the Miami Heat on Friday night. Following the loss, LaVine told Yahoo! Sports on the topic of Bulls head coach Jim Boylen, “If he doesn’t trust me, it’s hard to trust someone who doesn’t trust you.”
https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1198431592168984578
So it’s possible that LaVine was extra motivated entering Saturday’s game. A remarkable performance that was capped off beautifully with the buzzer-beating three.
About Matt Clapp
Matt is an editor/writer at The Comeback and Awful Announcing.
He can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.