The Sixers' game-winning play wasn’t a play at all.
Their quick dashes of ball movement off of a defensive rebound that ultimately culminated in a T.J. McConnell hero shot was the result of pushing a fast break rather than a designed inbounds play.
“It’s a concept that we talk to our guys about; it’s a player’s read,” Brett Brown said after the Sixers' 98-97 win over the Knicks. “If they feel like they have a clear path, they see daylight, they feel like the gym is an odd-numbered gym, then we encourage them to take it and push the ball against a not-set defense.”
The Knicks led the Sixers 97-96 as time wound down. Kristaps Porzingis pulled up for a three-pointer with 6.8 seconds remaining and airballed the shot. Gerald Henderson came up with the rebound, and with 5.9 seconds on the clock, got out and ran.
“It’s one of those situations where if you get the rebound and it’s still a rebound, flat-footed and you have no advantage, then it’s easy to call timeout,” Henderson said. “But that one, we had to kind of run through it. There was no real reason or chance really to call timeout. If I did, I would have had to take a dribble, we would have had to take it out from where I called it, and they would have had a set defense. We had them on the heels of it, so I just decided to take it.”
The Sixers scurried on the offensive end. Henderson dished the ball to Ersan Ilyasova, who kicked it to an open McConnell. It was an unconventional play with go-to Joel Embiid, who had a 21-point, 14-rebound double-double by that point, on the floor.
“I saw a wide-open man,” Ilyasova said. “In the rule of basketball, I understand who has a high percentage shot, but at that point, I saw [McConnell] wide open under the rim. He was on the way out in a cutting position so I moved the ball. Sometimes you have to make a good judgment because you have to think about a shot clock violation. He made a good judgment as far as throwing to shoot.”
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McConnell was caught by surprise when he caught the ball. He looked for a layup, but Carmelo Anthony’s defense halted that plan. Instead, he spun, found himself open, and hit the jumper as the buzzer sounded.
“I did a spin move and I thought he was going to be in my face when I shot it. I turned around and no one was there, it was pretty much uncontested,” McConnell said. “I think if there was a little bit of time left, I probably would have tried to find Joel. The circumstances were different, the clock was winding down.”
The Sixers' coaching staff has been encouraging the players to create their own last-second opportunities. Brown referenced back to a close November loss to the Cavaliers in which the Sixers called timeout instead of running through the clock.
This time, the team was prepared to push through the final seconds.
“The coaching staff trusted us,” Embiid said. “The plan was to grab the rebound and call a timeout or go if we didn’t want to. For us to grab that ball and push it in transition, and T.J. hitting that shot, you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Coach especially. I remember once earlier in the year, he called a timeout and for him to let us play and let us go and figure out things, it’s great.”