#CavsRank Moments 3: The Shot

The Shot.

For nearly three decades, this two word moniker was synonymous with heartbreak, dismay and unrealized hoop dreams in the City of Cleveland. It was christened into the lexicon of sports misfortune in this town on May 7th of 1989, by one Michael Jeffrey Jordan, as he rose and hung in mid-air over a stupefied Craig Ehlo… ending a promising playoff campaign of the Cavaliers before it truly had a chance to begin. And, while they couldn’t have known it at the time, it was one of the first true signature moments that not only helped launch the MJ mythology into the stratosphere of the game, but also relegated a talented era of Cavs teams to the perpetual status of contenders rather than champions.

The Shot cruelly lived on for years, joining the ranks of other two word Cleveland sports moments like The Drive and The Fumble (and later The Move and The Decision), memorialized in retrospective clips of Jordan’s career and Gatorade commercials alike. And sure, while there were other great shots that came on the positive side of the Cavalier ledger, most of which were authored by LeBron James, none quite had the power to eradicate the stigma of the original iteration (though the King came close in #CavsRank Moment 7 against MJ’s old team). No, for that to happen, it had to be special. It had to be the kind of shot that would be memorable for all time. It had to happen at the moment when the Cavaliers needed it most. On the grandest of stages. Under the brightest of lights. In front of a hostile crowd. It had to be transcendent.

So, how does a pull-up isolation three-point dagger… directly in the grill of the unanimous MVP… to break the 11th and final tie… of Game 7… of the Finals… on the road at possibly the loudest arena in the League… against the defending champions who won a historic 73 regular season games… to effectively complete the first comeback from a 3-1 deficit… in NBA history grab you?

Oh yeah, and instead of LeBron James… the architect of this shot was the 24 year old offensive wunderkind who has blossomed out of the shadow of the Chosen One. When you say it out loud, it almost seems unreal… or scripted by Hollywood. But, this #CavsRank Moment not only happened… it finally gave Cavs fans everywhere a reason to trade chagrined grimaces with giddy smiles when uttering the words: The Shot.

https://vine.co/v/5Buatxa1W3w

To get an appreciation of how this Moment transpired, you have to go back and remember some of the things that led up to it. A little more than a year earlier, Irving was leaving Oracle Arena on crutches after suffering a broken kneecap in overtime of Game 1 of the 2015 Finals. The recovery from that injury kept him out of action for the first couple of months of the season, and he wasn’t really himself until after the all-star break. However, he turned things up to a whole other level offensively throughout the playoffs, culminating in several amazing outbursts in The Finals.

He had averaged 35 points collectively in Games 3-5, and had capped it with a dueling 41 point explosion with LeBron in Game 5. However, his production dipped in Game 6, primarily due to a minor injury sustained when Festus Ezeli stepped on the inside of his left foot in the third quarter of that game. That injury may have had something to do with Kyrie getting off to a slow start in Game 7 (he made just four of his first 10 shots), although during the postgame press conference, he admitted that it was more likely because he had barely slept over the previous 48 hours while contemplating all of the scenarios that could transpire in a Game 7.

Irving admitted that what finally got him going was channelling his inner Kobe Bryant (one of his NBA mentors in his young career). He said that early in the game, he told his teammates he just needed to settle in, and that happened around the end of the first half.

“That moment right there happened, and I was like ‘ok, I’m fine’ ” said Irving. “And all I was thinking about in the back of my mind was Mamba mentality. Just Mamba mentality, that’s all I was thinking.”

It worked, as Uncle Drew poured in 17 points in the second half of Game 7, mostly with some incredibly acrobatic drives, and kept the Cavs within striking distance when it looked like LeBron was conserving energy for the final few minutes. He only knocked down one other triple before The Shot though, as the Warriors did their best to keep him off of the perimeter.

But, that final, series-deciding Shot to give the Cavs the 20th (and final) lead change of Game 7 came at the culmination of a relative eternity of scorelessness for both teams. After a Klay Thompson layup with 4:39 remaining to tie the score at 89 a piece, the two teams struggled mightily to the finish, with tension and fatigue leaving shot after shot short. Neither team scored for nearly four minutes which were also marked by some incredible defensive plays (more on one in particular to come). But following a Steph Curry three point misfire, Coach Ty Lue called a timeout with 1:08 remaining. In the huddle, Lue diagrammed a high screen to get the ball into Kyrie’s hands. He wanted to get him isolated on the right arc against Curry to take advantage of the mismatch. It was simple isolation play, but ultimately an effective one. The game had distilled to a place where the Cavs liked their chances if they could get the one-on-one matchup they were looking for in this moment.

Lue had LeBron inbound the ball to Kyrie on the left sideline, and Klay Thompson immediately closed on him. As planned, Irving worked his way to the right side as J.R. Smith came up to pick Thompson, leaving Curry to switch onto Kyrie. The ISO trap was sprung. Kyrie took a few dribbles in toward the arc, flashing his handles in the face of the regular season MVP while sizing him up. After a quick deke to his right… with 53 seconds left on the game clock (about five remaining on the shot clock), he stepped back on the left wing and launched The Shot over Curry’s outstretched arm. It seemed like it took forever for the ball to reach the rim… and breaths were held across the length and breadth of Cavalier nation. But, The Shot was high and true, touching nothing but twine as it fell to the earth, giving the Cavs one final lead that they would never relinquish. It was a thing of incredible beauty.

Curry, not necessarily known for his staunch defense, still made a desperate effort to stop The Shot from happening (not unlike Craig Ehlo several decades earlier against MJ)… but like Mike, Kyrie was not going to be denied.

“I don’t know how close I was to him. I tried to reach at the ball, stay in front of him, make it a tough shot,” Curry said. “It was a tough step-back that he just stepped up and made. It doesn’t matter how good or bad defense I played, he made the shot. So credit to him. He stepped up and took advantage of the moment. It was not a good feeling turning around and seeing it go in.”

Let’s see it again… from several angles…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxEdwPaF1ko

While The Shot didn’t end the game (as MJ’s had), it did give the Cavs the separation required to keep the defensive pressure on Curry and Golden State, and (with one additional free throw from LeBron) it provided nearly the entire final margin of victory. And, it also just happened to come in possibly one of the greatest Game 7s ever played in the sport.

In the end, Kyrie Irving proved his doubters wrong. He not only averaged 25 points per game in the postseason, with a 24.7 PER while shooting an amazing 55% on isolation plays, he also had the guts and ability to take The Shot that helped LeBron make a Cavalier Championship possible. There is no Larry O’Brien trophy in Cleveland without The Shot, but Kyrie was the first to proclaim that it was just one of the trifecta of monumental Moments in Game 7 (along with The Block and The Stop).

Ironically, months later during the Cavs Media Day for this coming season, Coach Lue said Irving’s shot was supposed to be a drive. The Cavs believed Kyrie could beat Steph to the rim, but, as Lue said “He had the dog in him… he just took the shot.” Because that’s just what great players do. But, maybe my favorite anecdote I read about Kyrie’s shot came from Jim Chones who told a story to the Cleveland media about the flight home from California after Game 7. He reportedly was on the chartered flight with the players’ family and friends, and was sitting next to Kyrie’s dad, Drederick.

“His father said to me ‘well you know he shot that off the wrong foot.’ I said, ‘shut up,'” Chones recalled. “He did, he shot it off the wrong foot. Step back 3-pointer, when he only needed 2. That’s the mindset of this kid. He can handle the pressure.”

So, you can add off the wrong foot to that litany of awesomeness above…

How sweet it is, Cavs fans… The Shot is no longer another a four-letter word.

And, oh by the way… our old pal Craig Ehlo knew it was going to happen before anyone else…

https://twitter.com/eggsehlo/status/743264830799261696