The Brooklyn Nets were having such a great January. They’d lost only one game in 2014, and had crawled back to two games under .500 — good enough for a low playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Then, as if on cue, the Atlantic Division-leading (that still sounds weird) Toronto Raptors came into Barclay’s Center and stole all the good vibes.
First, we’ll direct your attention to the video above, which was the eventual game-winning play. Perhaps Deron Williams was psyched out by Richard Sherman sitting courtside, because he did his best Colin Kaepernick impression, throwing the inbounds pass right to the Raps’ Patrick Patterson, who was defending in back court. However, Patterson’s game-winner wouldn’t have been possible without a heads up play (see below) from professional troll Amir “Mr. Double-Dribble” Johnson, and a crew of inattentive referees.
Down 103-100, John Salmons drove into the lane in hopes of cutting the deficit to one. The Nets’ Andrei Kirilenko attempted to step over and and provide help defense, but was violently removed from the play with a very heads-up move from Johnson. Somehow, the refs missed Johnson grab AK-47’s arm with both hands and spin him out of the play.
Of course, none of this would really be an issue if the Nets had managed to run a simple inbounds play right after.
