Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb, middle, celebrates his game-winning basket against the Toronto Raptors with teammates Devonte' Graham, left, and Frank Kaminsky. Photo / AP
Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb, middle, celebrates his game-winning basket against the Toronto Raptors with teammates Devonte' Graham, left, and Frank Kaminsky. Photo / AP
What. Just. Happened.
The Raptors must have thought they broke every mirror and walked past every black cat in Toronto after the Hornets produced the craziest game winner the NBA has seen since 2010 when Jeremy Lamb tossed up a half-court prayer on the buzzer to steal a 115-114 winon Monday (NZST).
The Hornets were down by two with just 3.1 seconds left on the clock as they in-bounded the ball after a timeout.
Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb, middle, celebrates his game-winning basket against the Toronto Raptors with teammates Devonte' Graham, left, and Frank Kaminsky. Photo / AP
Any chance of snatching the win appeared to evaporate in an instant when Lamb fumbled the in-bound pass over to the other side of the half-way line.
He only just had time to retreat to snatch up the loose ball before turning back to his own basket and hurling a long-range bomb all in the one chaotic motion.
His prayer sailed high through the air before landing with a thud against the backboard and a swish through the net as the home Canadian crowd went instantly silent.
As the stunned crowd tried to make sense of what had just happened, Charlotte players streaked from the bench to get a piece of the action as Lamb started celebrating with anybody in a general 10m radius.
Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb (3) celebrates his game-winning basket against the Toronto Raptors in an NBA basketball game. Photo / AP
Jeremy Lamb's game-winning buzzer-beater was from 48 feet, the second-longest game-winning buzzer-beater over the last 20 seasons. Tyreke Evans hit a 49-footer against the Grizzlies on Dec. 29, 2010.
Toronto looked to have won the game after Kawhi Leonard hit the go-ahead basket with 44 seconds left, then blocked Kemba Walker at the other end. Charlotte got one final chance after Leonard missed a jumper with 5.8 seconds to go.
Pascal Siakam knocked the inbounds pass away from Lamb, who chased the ball into the back court before launching the game-winning shot.
Walker had 15 points and 13 assists and Willy Hernagomez had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Hornets.
Dwayne Bacon made five three-pointers and scored 20 points, and rookie Miles Bridges scored 16 for Charlotte, which began the day 2.5 games behind eighth-place Miami and 1.5 games behind ninth-place Orlando in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Leonard scored 28 points and Siakam had 23 for the Raptors, who lost consecutive home games for the second time this season.Toronto lost to New Orleans on November 12 and Detroit on November 14.
All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry returned for Toronto after missing the previous two games because of a sore right ankle. With Lowry in the starting lineup, the Raptors were at full strength for the first time since the trade deadline acquisition of center Marc Gasol, and the subsequent signing of free agent guard Jeremy Lin.
Still, having a full complement of players didn't pay off for the Raptors, who surrendered 18 points on 13 turnovers. Toronto had 22 turnovers in Friday's home loss to Oklahoma City, one shy of their season worst.
Charlotte led 109-96 with 7:50 remaining. Then Toronto's Fred Van Vleet hit back-to-back three-pointers and dunks from Siakam and Leonard cut it to 109-106 with 5:26 to go.
