Shake n' Bake
The Brooklyn Globetrotters, er, Nets produced the play of the NBA season on Sunday
They save you should always save the best for last. Who said that? We have no idea. Why shouldn’t we take the best first in case we get hit by a car crossing the street before we get to the last? Also unclear. But it’s an adage the Brooklyn Nets took to heart on Sunday, unveiling perhaps the single best play of the NBA (regular) season on the final day of the NBA (regular) season. Check it out and then jump around a bunch.
It all starts with defense and hustle (are you watching, kids!?), before the loose ball falls to Blake Griffin at the Cavaliers' foul line. In one fluid motion he swoops it out of the air and behind his back to Kyrie Irving who one touches it to a streaking Mike James who lays it off the backboard for a Kevin Durant “rack attack,” as the announcers so eloquently put it.
If you’re wondering what kind of A. cojones B. hubris or C. all of the above it takes to throw an off-the-backboard alley-oop in the middle of an NBA game, James discussed that after the game, admitting that his Brooklyn Nets career flashed before his eyes moments before lobbing up the fateful richochet.
But all’s well that ends well, and things ended well, with the Nets improving their season record to 48-24 while clinching the number two seed in the Easter Conference. They’ll play the winner of the Celtics-Wizards play-in game in a best-of-five first round series where highlights to rival this one are sure to flow like fine wine. Drink up.