Deron Williams beats buzzer for stunning Mavs win vs. Kings in 2OT
Bless the Sacramento Kings, a team apparently incapable of playing a boring game. After playing the host Dallas Mavericks to a 104-104 tie through regulation and the first overtime on Tuesday night, the Kings took control of the second extra period with nine points from DeMarcus Cousins in the opening 2:30. A Rudy Gay three-pointer with 1:20 remaining gave the visitors a 116-107 lead, and it looked as if the Kings were set to pick up a solid road win.
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Naturally, the NBA’s most unpredictable outfit ended up going scoreless over the rest of the contest. Deron Williams made a lay-up for the Mavs soon after Gay’s triple, and Dirk Nowitzki nailed a three-pointer with 26 seconds on the clock to make it a two-point contest. Rick Carlisle took a risk in instructing his team not to foul on the Kings’ final possession, but the gamble paid off with Darren Collison shooting an airball to trigger a shot clock violation and hand the Mavericks a chance at forcing another overtime or grabbing a win in 2.3 seconds.
Williams, not a certainty to play Tuesday after leaving Saturday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans with a hamstring strain, gave the American Airlines Center crowd exactly what it wanted:
A glance at the clock on the TV broadcast may indicate some clock malfeasance, but the official time did show 2.3 rather than 1.3 seconds. There was no controversy here — Williams was exactly the right amount of patient and drained the shot for the dramatic 117-116 win. He also added a little zest to his follow through and sent Kings head coach George Karl to a seat on the bench with an inadvertent bump.
While obviously the most important, this wasn’t Williams’s only big shot of the game. He also gave the Mavs a 98-96 advantage with this lay-in with two seconds remaining in regulation:
Unfortunately for Dallas, Cousins managed a very impressive drive and bucket at the buzzer to send it to OT:
If not for the Williams winner, Cousins undoubtedly would have been the biggest story of the game. The ultra-talented center put up a typically maximalist 35 points (15-of-30 FG), 17 rebounds, six steals, four assists, and 10 turnovers in 49 minutes. Gay added 31 points on 13-of-20 shooting, but Cousins was the focus of everything the Kings did. That was especially the case with Rajon Rondo missing his return to Dallas due to back spasms sustained in Monday’s win at the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Unfortunately for the Kings, the final 80 seconds saw them show the same inconsistency that may have caused Karl to say that his team doesn’t have enough guts. They gave up important plays on defense, failed to get the ball to Cousins or Gay on their last two possessions, and got the bad breaks that seem to find them far more often than others. The Kings may be fascinating, but they remain as frustrating as ever for their fans.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
