The Denver Nuggets had the ball out of bounds with six seconds left in overtime against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, and the score tied at 122. If you’re the Nuggets, you’re feeling pretty good in that moment — they ran an inbounds play to their star big man Nikola Jokic, with a chance to win the game.
Then everything went bad for Denver.
Jokic was stripped, and the Kings had a crazy chance to run the length of the floor and score. The ball got pushed to Harrison Barnes, who leapt up for a dunk … and missed.
Then, showing a really nice awareness for the moment, trailing Kings player Buddy Hield leaped up, and tapped the ball toward the hoop. It was all he could do in the time remaining, and his tip-in worked. The ball fell through the goal, and then Hield had my favorite celebration of the young season — he just straight up sprinted out of the arena.
Watch:
Opening night or not, that’s a huge win for the Kings going up against one of the powers of the Western Conference. Sacramento had seven players finish in double figures in scoring, and they did an excellent job containing the Nuggets’ Jamal Murray, who finished with only nine points and four assists in 34 minutes.
This is a team that can cause opponents some headaches this year.
