Half-Court Heave
Brandon Ingram flings craziest (and most meaningless) half-court buzzer beater you will ever see
The New Orleans Pelicans have been a non-factor the last few seasons. The franchise plummeted like a stone after dealing Anthony Davis, bottoming out at the Sacramento Kings’ end of the Western Conference. Their once-surefire superstar Zion Williamson hasn’t seen the court this season, with rumors about his weight and teamwork (or lack thereof) swirling. They’ve rebounded a little bit in the new year, but currently sit six games back of the eighth and final playoff spot with five weeks left to play. All of which makes this casual, over-the-shoulder heave from Brandon Ingram to close out the first half of Sunday night’s game against the Nuggets perhaps The Most-Meaningless-But-Still-Absolutely-Crazy Buzzer Beater in NBA History. Check it out.
Ingram takes the inbounds pass and, trying to beat the press, he spins back into a double team and nearly loses the ball. He bends over at the waist, fumbles at it as if the lights were off for a few seconds, and then picks it up and flings it Kareem Sky Hook style just as the buzzer buzzes. At no point in the sequence events did it it appear that Ingram was trying to score until the net rippled.
The shot cut the Nuggets' lead to six.
As you’ve probably already guessed from the general thrust of this thing, the Nuggets would hold on to win 138-130 in overtime, rendering Ingram’s scroll-stopping highlight nothing more than a mere oddity. In fact, at this point in the season, with the draft lottery odds crystalizing, there were probably a few folks in the Pelicans organization who cringed when the shot went down. We, however, thank Ingram for his service. Nothing jumpstarts a slow Monday morning in pre-madness March quite like a buzzer beater.