There Are Few Things Better In Basketball Than A Game Winner And The NBA Blessed Us With 3 Wild Ones On Wednesday Night

We had a full slate in the NBA last night and once again it delivered. While the last few days of games have mostly revolved around historic individual performances, Wednesday night was a little different but just as exciting. If there's one thing I love, it's game winners. Who doesn't love game winners? I often debate which one I like more, a dagger game winner on the road or a heroic game winner in front of your own fans where the crowd goes nuts. Both are awesome, and you can't really go wrong with either.

Off the 11 games we saw last night, we were blessed with 3 separate game winners, each one awesome in its own right. I thought it might be fun to run through each and then rank them because why not?

Evan Mobley

First up we have Evan Mobley. These Cavs man, they just don't go away. You have to really respect a team like that who is still pretty young yet keeps finding ways to come up huge in clutch moments. In a game against the sinking Suns, the Cavs found themselves on the wrong end of a 64-59 score heading into the final quarter which was a nice little throwback to the early 2000s. Nobody could hit shit.

But like the Cavs so often do, they responded in that final quarter. A nice bounce back with 31 points on 55/54% splits, while Caris LeVert did most of the heavy lifting for the majority of the quarter, when it came time for someone to hit the biggest shot of the night, that man was Evan Mobley

First career game winner for Mobley, there's a lot to love about this plauy. First, how about the unselfishness of Mitchell to be looking for a teammaate in that spot. Given how insane he's been recently I don't think anyone would have been upset if he took that final shot. The fact that he was looking for a teammate though just goes to show you how must trust he has in the guys he plays with, and that's the type of shit that really helps a team's chemistry. To trust a guy who has literally never been in that spot before is pretty cool, and it's even cooler that Mobley came through.

In terms of the shot itself, what impressed me most wasn't the fact that Mobley hit that little 10 foot pullup. You watch enough Evan Mobley you know that shot has been in his bag since he entered the league. He's already so advanced as a scorer around the basket at this stage of his career, there's a reason everyone considers him the next KG/Duncan. What impressed me was how calm he was in that moment, and how he was able to put the perfect amount of touch on that shot. Often times in that situation a player is so nervous or amped up that they end up putting way too much juice on it.

I love how there was ZERO hesitation on the jumper too. He was crashing into that area on the Mitchell drive and he was ready from the jump. Almost like he expected the pass. Add in the fact that he was at home and th crowd went nuts, very solid came winner

GAME WINNER SCORE: 8.2/10

Grayson Allen

You want to talk about an ugly game, it didn't get much uglier than MIL/TOR. I think the Raptors started off like 2-16 or something horrendous like that, and frankly the Bucks weren't that much better even though Giannis was back in the lineup.

We had a little bit of controversy at the end involving Gary Trent Jr and Grayson Allen in the final 30 seconds

I dunno, I'm not sure how that's a Flagrant foul. Then, a few moments later there was the whole Siakam clearly pushing Portis out of bounds only for there to be no call

There's a reason TONY BROTHERS was trending last night and it's for all the reasons you think. After all that bullshit we found ourselves in OT and we had a little bit of redemption. In the final moments, with the game on the line, Grayson Allen came through

Good on him for knocking down that wide open corner three, but the true special play here is the Giannis pass. Holy shit what a play. I don't know how he saw it/had the strength to deliver a pass like that right into the shooting pocket of Allen, but man was that beautiful. Much like Mitchell, I don't think anyone would have cared if Giannis took that play himself, he's Giannis, but the fact that he trusted his teammate and played the right way will always be cool to me. 

It felt like the Basketball Gods were rewarding Grayson Allen a little bit because of what happened to end regulation, but credit to him for knocking down a big time shot

GAME WINNER SCORE: 6.8/10

Saddiq Bey

If you want a wave of emotion, the GS/DET game was for you. Sure both of these teams are flirting with the lottery and have underachieved a little bit so far this season, but the beauty of the NBA is none of that matters once you start a game. Even a matchup between two kind of shitty teams can still provide unreal moments.

Take the final 10 seconds of this game. The Warriors needed a prayer down by 3, and Steve Kerr ran one of the most beautiful out of bounds sets you'll ever see

Great play call, perfect execution. What a shot by Klay who is having himself a nice little run as of late, and at this moment I imagine Warriors fans were over the moon. Their prayers were answered and things looked like we were headed to another OT.

The only problem was Klay left 1.0 on the clock. You know what happens next

You want to talk about prayers, well this shot right here by Saddiq Bey is the very definition of a prayer. I'm not sure he even saw where the basket was, he just caught that shit and let it fly. Given what had just transpired the possession before, the fact that it was on the road in a building where the Warriors were 17-2 coming into the game, that's a pretty huge moment.

Of all the game winners, this was the only one where you were filled with shock once it happened. Everything went down so fast it was such a wave of emotion for not only both fanbases, but for anyone who watched it. These type of game winners are my favorite where it takes your brain a few seconds to fully comprehend what you just witnessed. Great shot by Bey, hell of a win by the Pistons.

GAME WINNER SCORE: 10/10

As I'm sure you can tell, my vote is easily for Saddiq Bey's game winner. The others were cool in a sense that all game winners are cool, but that one was more on the insane side which always plays.

I can only imagine what we have in store for tonight's slate. Luka is probably going to hit a game winner or some shit because that's all he does against the Celts whenever they play in Dallas. I'm not kidding