With fifteen seconds left in this game, and with just one point standing between him and the fabled, glorious lands of the triple-double, Kyle O’Quinn had the ball. All he had to do was make a bucket (or get fouled on a shot attempt, but good luck getting the refs to call anything other than blatant arm-hacks on the final possession of the game) and the trippy-dubby would be his. And with it, a certain kind of basketball immortality that can never be erased.
In this situation, which could be considered a “clutch time” situation since he had no additional game time left in which to score the points necessary for a triple-double, O’Quinn decided to shoot a sixteen-foot jumper.
Clank. No triple-double for you, Mr. Irish Black Santa.
The commentators didn’t note the miss. If they realized the gravity of what had just transpired, they probably would have said something, so I’m guessing that even the statistically-minded Marc Zumoff just couldn’t find it within him to care about the game anymore. My main question is, did the opposing defenders know that O’Quinn was so close to a major statistical milestone?
I ask that because, if O’Quinn had gone to the cup instead of settling for the jumper, there’s a chance that nobody would have tried very hard to stop him. Nobody wants to pointlessly elongate the end of a decided game by committing unnecessary fouls. They’d rather let O’Quinn have his layup and then run the clock out. But if the Suns defenders knew that he was driving to the bucket with the specific goal in mind of acquiring his tenth point and, thus, the triple-double, they might have been more vigilant in protecting the rim. Even though they won, there’s some small amount of honor at stake when it comes to opposing players gunning for a specific statistical achievement. Like, if O’Quinn needed that bucket to score fifty (something that only happens in my most happy of dreams), they would quintuple-team him and force him to give up the ball.
I’m irrationally upset right now. A KOQ triple double would have been so sweet. Instead, we got KOQ-blocked.