The non-dominant floater is one of those difficult moves, but Kyrie Irving turned it into a stunning buzzer-beater game-winner.
Game-winning buzzer-beater throws usually appear with little frequency during a season. But the match day of March 18 in the NBA alone witnessed two buzzer-beater game-winner phases just a few hours apart.
One of these two classy plays came from Kyrie Irving, bringing an emotional victory to the Dallas Mavericks at home against the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
Kyrie Irving celebrates after a difficult shot with his left hand (non-dominant hand), bringing victory to the Dallas Mavericks over the defending champion Denver Nuggets
The score is 105-105 and there are only a few seconds left in the fourth quarter. The Dallas Mavericks have the right to kick off the ball in the hope of ending the match in four official quarters.
The ball did not reach Luka Doncic (who had just had a difficult 3-point shot to equalize the score) due to being tightly marked by defensive specialist Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, leading to Kleber passing the ball to Kyrie Irving.
A bit of luck accompanied “Uncle Drew” when his foot almost stepped on the line. Then Irving launched a very difficult shot – a floater with his non-dominant hand in front of Nikola Jokic’s very high reach.
The ball went into the basket in the excitement of Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks players. Luka Doncic stood watching his teammate’s finish and could only hold his head with a bright smile.
Kyrie Irving’s outstanding play made not only his teammates but even his opponents admire him. Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone said: “They deserved the victory. That was a crazy finish from Kyrie.
If someone beats us with a shot like that, a floater with their non-dominant hand from the elbow position like that, I’ll accept it. Our defense did well and I was satisfied with the students, only Kyrie was too classy in that moment.”
Kyrie Irving’s floater with his non-dominant hand encountered Nikola Jokic’s very high ball blocking range but was still successfulA bit of luck accompanied the Dallas Mavericks when Kyrie almost stepped on the line right before finishing
As mentioned above, Luka Doncic was the one who equalized the score 105-105 after a difficult 3-point shot. This situation came when there was more than 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Doncic tried from a distance near the logo in the middle of the field but still put the ball into the basket.
Before that, the Denver Nuggets created a series of 14-2 scores (Jamal Murray alone scored 8 points) to take a 105-102 lead and seemed to be able to make a spectacular comeback.
But Doncic then equalized with a long throw. The next time he got on the ball, Murray failed to finish successfully for the Denver Nuggets, and the defending champion collapsed with Kyrie Irving’s buzzer-beater game-winner.
This result broke Denver’s 5-match unbeaten streak, preventing Nikola Jokic and his teammates from climbing to No. 1 in the Western rankings.
Currently, the Denver Nuggets have a total record of 47-21, standing right behind the top team Oklahoma City Thunder (47-20). Completing the top-3 in the NBA West are the Minnesota Timberwolves with a record of 46-21.
For the Dallas Mavericks, this is the 5th victory in the last 6 matches, a series of sublime performances helping Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and his teammates continue to chase the Sacramento Kings to lock in a position in the Playoffs group.
There are currently 3 clubs competing for a spot in the Playoffs (top-6 regional rankings), including the 6th-place Sacramento Kings, the 7th-place Dallas Mavericks and the 8th-place Phoenix Suns, with records of 38-28, 39-29 and 39-29 respectively. 39-29.