The oral history of OG Anunoby's shot that saved the Raptors' season

TORONTO – OG Anunoby hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to lead the Toronto Raptors to a 104-103 victory in Game 3 of their second-round series with the Boston Celtics on Thursday night to help them climb back into the series, now only trailing 2-1.

Anunoby’s shot was a wild event that took place in just 0.5 seconds of game time and, essentially, saved the Raptors’ season. Here’s a look back at the most important half-second of Toronto’s 2019-20 season in the words of the men who were on the floor when the seemingly impossible happened.

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All hope looked lost

What’s key to understanding why Anunoby’s game-winner was so shocking and uplifting for the Raptors was what transpired during the final possessions leading up to it.

With 21 seconds to play in the game, Fred VanVleet, after putting a nice move on Celtics centre Daniel Theis, nailed an acrobatic layup to tie the game, 101-101. Boston then chose not to take a timeout, but instead play for what Celtics coach Brad Stevens must’ve thought would be the final shot.

So the Celtics put the ball into the hands of Kemba Walker, who at that point was enjoying a fabulous game, having scored 29 points on 9-of-15 shooting.

The Raptors tried to send a double team his way after he made it past half court, with both VanVleet and Marc Gasol coming up trying to trap him and get the ball out of his hands. But Walker proved too gifted a ball-handler and evaded the trap by stumbling into the paint where, unfortunately for the Raptors, Kyle Lowry stepped up to try to stop the ball while Pascal Siakam got caught ball-watching.

Walker, aware Theis was in the left dunker spot, then dropped a gorgeous dime to Theis, who slammed the ball home to give Boston a 103-101 lead with 0.5 left on the clock.

Pascal Siakam: “Obviously disappointed with the layup. And for me I was in a position where I could have taken that away. Just had to make a decision, judgment call and you can’t leave the basket. That was on me right there.”

Brad Stevens: “I thought Kemba did a nice play. Smart did a good job reading the switch when they switched onto Theis, so then Smart came up. Now you have two guys on Kemba and he’s going to find the open guy. He did a good job.”

Jaylen Brown: “That was a great play. He did his job, he drew two and found the open man. He put us up two. It was a big play for us. Point-five on the clock. We just needed one stop to win the [expletive] game and we end up losing.”

The confidence never wavered

The Raptors took a timeout after that Theis jam, but the game looked like it was over at that point. A half-second was simply too little time for the Raptors to get anything good.

Or so those on the outside-looking-in thought.

The Raptors never lost the faith, though.

Nick Nurse: “You know what? It seemed like we sat down in our chairs, and they were ready to get the play … They sat down and when I turned around they were all sitting there waiting for me to give them a play and I decided, I had two in mind, and decided on that one.”

OG Anunoby: “No one was rattled after that. Everybody just stayed confident and said, ‘Next play.’ Just focused on winning this play and getting a good shot off. We were confident [with] anyone that took a shot. So we were just looking for the next play. This group is resilient. So just next-play mentality.”

Fred VanVleet: “You sit there and try to figure out how he got so wide open for a second, then you look at the clock and see how much time you got and try to run a play to get a shot up. So it was a quick timeout. We had a quick discussion about what the play was gonna be, and we decided on one, and you go out and try to execute one. Kyle made a heck of a read and OG made the shot.

“As long as there’s time on the clock, you’ve got to believe you can win. We’ve been in a lot of these situations before. We’ve seen it all, so there was really no panic. It was moreso about trying to get a good look, and we were able to do that.”

Siakam: “We knew we had time to get a shot up. I think we just wanted to draw a play, try to get whatever was open.”

The play was supposed to be for VanVleet or Siakam

Oddly enough, though the play looked like it was for Anunoby all along with how perfectly everything fell into place, Anunoby wasn’t actually supposed to receive the ball as Nurse initially drew it all up.

However, thanks to a little miscommunication on the Celtics’ part, Anunoby was left all by his lonesome on the left side waiting for a pass — and ready to make a lot of Raptors fans very happy.

Kyle Lowry: “It was a play designed for Freddy to come off in the corner, then our second option was Pascal, but we know Boston does a great job running their inbounds and Coach Stevens is one hell of a [after-timeout] offensive and defensive guy so, me, Marc made a step and I was just waiting, just waiting for the right moment and I seen Jaylen Brown step up a little bit on Marc and I just had to make a precise pass to a heck of a shooter in OG and OG’s been shooting the ball extremely well and that’s the type of moment that an even-keeled attitude, a stay-calm moment, and he’s up for that.”

VanVleet: “I was the first option, so I was just trying to find a crease on one side of Tacko or the other. I ran into Tatum I think on the baseline so I tried to bounce back. Me and Marc were kind of fighting for position and trying to find an outlet for Kyle. I think a lot of that pulled them over and I had no idea where the ball was going. I was just following it myself, saw OG standing there with a wide-open shot so at that point you are just following the ball, man and it went in and the rest is history. It was a heck of a pass and a big shot by OG and that’s why you never give up.”

Anunoby: “The play was for Pascal to get a shot and they switched it up top, and then Marc flashed and I think Jaylen went to him on the flash and that left me open. So it was all of those actions that took place that left me open.”

Brown: “He was wide open, right? I guess it was a miscommunication. He hit a tough shot to win the game. It’s tough. It’s tough. That’s one that we definitely wish we could have back. But you move on.”

The pass

Of course, Anunoby wouldn’t have even gotten an opportunity to be the hero Thursday night if not for the heroics of Kyle Lowry.

Lowry finished Game 3 with a game-high 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting, as he was notably more aggressive than he has looked all playoffs long. The Raptors all-star also finished with eight assists — none bigger than the majestic lob he laid right into Anunoby’s shooting pocket over the outstretched arms of seven-foot-five Celtics centre Tacko Fall.

Nick Nurse: “There’s not a lot of times that you probably want, let’s call him a six-foot-one guard, taking the ball out in a late-game situation because you saw what they do, they try to put size on it and limit your vision. We would probably do something similar, right? But you say to me why is Kyle taking it out, I say because he’s got some guts, man, you’ve got to make a gutsy play every now and then.”

VanVleet: “I didn’t see it live, but watching it on replay, that’s probably one of the tougher ones we’ve seen. Given who was guarding the ball, Kyle’s size vs. Tacko, and to put it on the money, that much airtime, still give him time to get it off without the defender being in his face, it was a beautiful pass.

“And, you know, we don’t give Kyle as much credit as you guys give him. We expect those things from him, so it’s not that amazing, I guess, from [our point of view]. I’ve become accustomed to seeing him do those things on a nightly basis and couldn’t have had a better connection from him to OG tonight.”

Lowry: “I could see, actually. He stepped back a little bit, I think Freddy’s hard cut kinda moved him a little bit. I didn’t see the play, I gotta see it again, but I just felt like I had good enough touch on it to get it over his hands. So I’ll look at the play but I felt like he was a little bit further off. I moved back, also, to give myself some space but it was just a pass I made and the pass was nothing, OG made the shot, all the credit goes to the shot.

“That’s a tough shot, give OG that credit, the pass was just to get it to a guy like OG. That’s OG’s moment, man. That’s a great moment for that kid and I’m so happy and so proud of him, man. Don’t take away – that pass meant nothing, that shot was everything.”

The shot and the aftermath

The best part of Anunoby’s winning shot was seeing the contrast between the bedlam his Raptors teammates were experiencing and his calm, laissez-faire attitude to the whole event.

It also provided some incredibly quotable sound bites from Anunoby post-game.

Nick Nurse: “There’s not many options there. You’ve got to catch and shoot that thing, right? Really, really happy for him, he played his tail off, man. Nice that he gets [a] big reward for it because he played so hard all over the court.”

Anunoby: “It was cool. Just getting ready for Game 4 now.”

Lowry: “That’s just what he does, that’s him. I know deep down inside he’s excited and he’ll get a lot of text messages and he needs the credit, he deserves all the love and celebration he’s getting tonight, that kid works extremely hard and, like I said, it’s his moment. Let him live in it and then I’ll ruin it tomorrow when we’re watching film and I’ll tell him what he messed up on.”

VanVleet: “I know he’s excited. I think that that’s just his nature. And being in those situations, sometimes you don’t know what to do. You don’t know how to react. I don’t think he’s a guy that’s going to run around the court. I mean, that’s just not his personality. So that was true OG form right there, to knock down the biggest shot of his life and act like nothing happened.

“But for the rest of us, we were more excited for him probably than he was for himself. So just the joy of the game and the love of the game, you gotta have that, especially this time of year, to keep you going. So that’s probably what you saw there.”

Anunoby: “When I took that shot I expected to make it. I don’t shoot trying to miss. Every shot I shoot I try to make it. So I was not surprised. I wasn’t surprised.”

VanVleet: “I love it. I hope he continues to have that type of swag. But I’ll let him live in that persona for you guys for sure.”

How the Raptors can build from this emotional moment

A game-winning, buzzer-beating shot will certainly get the adrenaline pumping and makes for a great singular moment, but the Raptors still trail their series to a good Celtics team, so they’re going to have to look to use Anunoby’s Superman impersonation as a means to something bigger and better moving forward.

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Anunoby: “It’s definitely a momentum-changer. I believe that in Game 2 we thought that we could’ve won. We made some mistakes, we felt we could’ve won that game. So this game, same thing. We just wanted this game. So just go out do the game plan and in the next game just try to keep winning.”

VanVleet: “We just needed something to feel good [about]. It’s been a rough couple of days. The egg we laid in Game 1 and to get beat like that. Then to play really good for about 42 out of 48 minutes in Game 2 and lose … we’ve been pretty hard on ourselves the past couple of days. It hasn’t been pretty. The mood hasn’t been great but you just need a little magic and I thought we played great tonight.”

Siakam: “Needed that. Needed a good win and I think we haven’t been feeling good, really good lately and that’s a big one. That’s a big one. A big win and obviously we just worry about one game and that’s always how we worry about the games. One game at a time. Try to win the next game and that’s our focus. Next game. It’s really good that we got this one and we’ve just got to move forward.”

Lowry: “It’s still an uphill battle; I mean, those guys are extremely talented, they’re really, really good. So get back to that film room tomorrow, tonight rest up, get your bodies right, get your minds right, get some food in you, hydrate, just focus on the next day we have tomorrow and figure out what we’re going to do tomorrow. And then go forward.”

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