Steven Adams has produced one of the plays of the NBA season to help his Oklahoma City Thunder side pull off a miraculous victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves this afternoon.
Up by two points with 1.1 seconds to go, the Timberwolves were hit with a delay of game due tobig man Jordan Bell having his jersey untucked. That gave the Thunder a technical free throw, which Danilo Gallinari sunk to reduce the deficit to one.
However, with the Thunder having no timeouts, all Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns had to do was intentionally miss a free throw – as once the Thunder grabbed the rebound, they would have had no time left to get a shot off.
Instead, he made the free throw – and that's when Adams produced a piece of magic.
Adams hurled a one-handed, football-style 'Hail Mary' pass down to the other end of the court, where Dennis Schroder reeled it in and immediately threw up a layup, which went in, to send the game to overtime.
Schroder said the play was something he and Adams had been working on.
"We had been talking about it a couple of times before. I just lose my man, try to sprint as fast as I can, and he made a hell of a pass."
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Jeff Teague goes up for a shot in front of Oklahoma City Thunder centre Steven Adams. Photo / AP
It was part of an excellent all-around game for Adams, who ended with 22 points on 9/13 shooting to go with 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocks.
The Thunder move to a 9-12 record with the victory, while the Timberwolves slip back to 10-11.
