https://youtu.be/eWZGSGE2opY
If Naz Reid had hit that game-tying shot, man, that would’ve been the gnarliest thing ever. Leading his team back from a huge deficit, hitting the game-tier, who knows what he would’ve done in overtime, and best of all, he would’ve qualified to enter the Hall Of The Thirty Point Scorers, where he could hang out with Carlos Delfino. A video depicting his entire performance, when uploaded by yours truly, would have garnered somewhere in the vicinity of three million views on YouTube. Plus who knows how many more when reuploaded to that bootleg Chinese YouTube clone so that Chinese NBA fans could watch it. Oh man.
But no. It wasn’t the worst look ever, I’ve seen way worse in end-of-game situations, but a running floater/hook thing while careening across the lane sideways is not usually what you want on a final possession. Reid can make that shot, probably, sometimes, but is it what he really wants to be doing? No. I totally agree with the decision to let him have the shot, though. He was the reason that they were even in the game, and I always get upset when teams go away from the hot hand so they can have their “star player” shoot an iso jumper even though they haven’t actually made a shot in the 4th quarter.
The Timberwolves started off the second half down by 18 against the Thunder. Embarrassing, right? I don’t blame any Minnesotans who decided to turn off the game after local hero Mike Muscala torched them for 22 in the first half. But Reid looked at that deficit, said “FEH!”, and went out and scored 6 straight buckets, 13 points worth, while the Thunder plays looked around confusedly and pointed at each other as if to say “that was your man”. Remember Tracy McGrady’s 13 points in however many seconds? That was great, but this is probably even better, even if the timeframe for this performance is measured in minutes rather than seconds. Many people might disagree with me on that, and they’re entitled to their (wrong) opinion, but I’m always going to get mored hyped for a player like Reid than I am for a player like McGrady. Always.
Also, sorry for including his last missed shot in this video. If you watched it before reading this description, you were probably getting all hyped up when you saw the score, the time remaining, and that he had the ball. Not something I normally do, showing a non-bucket/non-foul shot attempt, but I felt like the story of Reid’s performance this game would be incomplete without it.