The Hawks beat the Magic 124-112 on Monday night. Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored a career-high 41 points. He also made nine three-pointers, which was one away from tying the Atlanta franchise record for three-pointers made in a single game. In his attempt to write his name in Hawks history he made a grave mistake and upset some Orlando players. In the process he set off a brief skirmish after the final buzzer.
With the Hawks up 12 and less than half-a-minute remaining in the fourth quarter Alexander-Walker went and got the ball from CJ McCollum. And then he did the unthinkable—he shot the ball.
It was truly shocking to see. It was almost as if in the wake of the NBA forcing the Hawks to abandon their plans for Magic City night, the home team was left with no choice but to completely disrespect the game. How else could you explain Nickeil Alexander-Walker attempting a meaningless three-pointer with the shot clock winding down in the final seconds of a game which was no longer in doubt?
When his shot came up short, he then continued to play basketball and tried to get the rebound. Thankfully it was collected by Jalen Johnson who mercifully put a stop to the madness by honorably dribbling out the shot clock while the Magic bench jeered Alexander-Walker for his breaking of an unwritten rule.
Chaos reigned and in Alexander-Walker's quest for personal glory he left a bad taste in the mouths of Magic players that not even lemon pepper could remove.
Sure, Alexander-Walker attempted that shot with the shot clock winding down, but no one cared. Tempers flared. As time expired there was shouting and shoving and pointing. Eventually, cooler heads prevailed thanks to a classy apology from Alexander-Walker to Magic coach Jamahl Mosley, but what an ugly scene that could have so easily been avoided.
The Magic would certainly never do something like this. You will never find an Orlando player shooting in the final seconds of a game that has already been decided. As long as you don't count this basket with 15 seconds remaining in a 25 point game from last week.
It's almost like guys are just making up this stuff as they go. Starters have to stop trying if it's kind of close, but backups get to keep going if it is a true blowout. What records can you chase? Everything is okay as long as its in the flow of the game, but if something really cool like scoring 80 points is at play you just toss the flow out the window like the Heat and Wizards did just last week?
Bam Adebayo scored 83 in a game where both teams were desperately trying to influence who got to score in the fourth quarter. It was never within 20, but there was Adebayo attempting a three with 2:09 remaining and then shooting six more free throws to pass Kobe Bryant.
It makes a three-point attempt with the shot clock winding down seem kind of benign, doesn't it? These teams really need to get on the same page and realize that sometimes guys are just playing basketball and that probably shouldn't be a crime in the NBA.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Hawks and Magic Scuffle Over Late Shot Attempt as NBA Struggles With Unwritten Rules.
