Sure, Josh Jackson’s three-pointer with 1 second left didn’t technically win the game for the Suns. But it was such a good shot that it caused Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry to become so discombobulated that he called a timeout that he didn’t have (Chris Webber is smiling somewhere, but it’s more of a grimace), and the resulting technical free throw (and other assorted goings-on) gave the Suns the win. Put another way: would the Suns have won this game if Jackson had not made the shot? No. So that makes it a game-winner. My logic is impeccable.
Taken to its conclusion, that reasoning also means that every single one of Jackson’s made shots were “game-winners”. So that’s even better. “Josh Jackson 19 Points/6 Game-Winners Full Highlights” is the kind of video I would not hesitate to watch.
I would make a joke about tanking here, because getting T’d up in a tied game for no reason other than that you can’t remember how many timeouts you have is a classic tanking move that has been used many times, but I think this was an honest mistake. The sequence leading up to this (involving another attempted timeout) was so confusing that I don’t think anyone on either team really knew what was going on. I’m rewatching the sequence and it makes me want to think about simpler things, like bunnies and rainbows and stuff like that. If I was a coach in that situation, I’d just hand the clipboard to my top assistant, mutter something about going to the bathroom, and hide in the locker room until the game was over.