Buzzer beater

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For the Japanese manga, see Buzzer Beater.

In basketball, a buzzer beater is a shot taken just before the game clock of a period expires, when the buzzer sounds, and red lighting framed around the backboard and along the scorer's table lights up. The term is normally reserved for baskets that win or tie the game at the last moment (more appropriately called as a "walk-off buzzer beater"). If a player releases the ball "beating" the buzzer, so that it sounds while the ball is in mid-air, the shot still counts if it goes in. Often, a buzzer beating shot will be released from long range (even from beyond half court), making for a spectacular play when it connects.

Officials in the NCAA, NBA, Serie A (Italy), and Euroleague (Final Four series only, effective 2006) are required to use instant replay to assess whether a basket made at the end of a period was in fact released before the game clock expired. Since 2002, the NBA also has mandated duplicate light strips on both the backboard and on the scorer's table for the purpose of identifying the end of period.

1 Remarkable buzzer beaters
2 References

[edit] Remarkable buzzer beaters

Although buzzer beaters are fairly common, several instances have been recognised as special occasions:

[edit] NBA Playoffs

In Game 1 of the 1950 NBA Finals, Bob Harrison of the Minneapolis Lakers hit a 40-foot last-second shot that won the Lakers the game.^[1]
In Game 4 of the 1969 NBA Finals, Sam Jones hit an off balance 18-foot jump shot as time expired to lift his Boston Celtics to a crucial 89-88 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.^[2]
In Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals, Jerry West sank an incredible desperation final-second 60-foot shot to tie the game at 102-102. However, his Los Angeles Lakers still lost against the New York Knicks in overtime, 108-111.^[3]
In Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals, Gar Heard of the Phoenix Suns hit a last second double overtime jump shot against the Boston Celtics to tie the game at 112. This was one of the many high points of a nail-biting triple overtime game, which the Celtics won 128-126. Heard's shot is one of the reasons why that game is referred to by the NBA as "The Greatest Game Ever".^[4]
In Game 1 of the 1986 Eastern Conference (First Round), Dudley Bradley of the Washington Bullets hit a last-second three pointer that won the Bullets the game vs the Philadelphia 76ers after the 76ers had led by 17 with just three minutes left.^[5]
In Game 3 of the 1986 Western Conference Semifinals, Derek Harper of the Dallas Mavericks hit a long three-pointer that won Dallas the game 110–108 against the Los Angeles Lakers as the buzzer sounded.^[5]
In Game 5 of the 1986 Western Conference Semifinals, the Houston Rockets were tied at 112 with one second left and the ball at half-court. Ralph Sampson scored on a last-second tip-in shot against the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Rockets won the series 4–1.^[6]
On May 7 1989, Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls received an inbounds pass with three seconds left, sprinted to the top of the key with defenders hounding him, and launched a last-second shot over Craig Ehlo of the Cleveland Cavaliers to sink The Shot, lifting his Bulls over the Cavaliers with 101-100.^[7]
In the 1995 NBA Playoffs, Nick Van Exel of the Los Angeles Lakers drained a three-point shot with 0.5 seconds remaining to a 98-96 win over the San Antonio Spurs.^[8]
In Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Western Conference Finals, John Stockton of the Utah Jazz buried a three-pointer as time expired, lifting his Jazz over the Houston Rockets 103-100 and taking the series 4-2.^[9]
In Game 4 of the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals, the Los Angeles Lakers were trailing the Sacramento Kings by 2 with the score at 99–97 with 11 seconds left in the game. The Lakers were trailing two games to one in the series and faced Game 5 at Sacramento. On the final possession, after his teammates Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal missed consecutive layups and Vlade Divac swatted the ball away to run out the clock, Robert Horry caught the ball and hit a three-pointer as time expired. The Lakers won the game 100–99 and eventually won the series and the championship.
In the Western Conference Semifinals of the 2004 NBA Playoffs, the Lakers were trailing the San Antonio Spurs with 0.4 seconds left and the ball at halfcourt after a timeout. Derek Fisher of the Lakers caught the ball and incredibly scored the last points of the miraculous 74-73 win.^[10]

[edit] Olympics and FIBA

In the 1972 Olympic Finals, Alexander Belov of the Soviet Union scored a last-second basket after catching a full-court desperation launch by a team mate. As time expired, Belov hit a layup that won the game 51-50 against the U.S. team.^[11]
(Euroleague) On April 7, 2004, Maccabi Tel Aviv was trailing Žalgiris at home, on the decisive round-robin match to determine which team advances to the Final Four tournament, held later that month on Maccabi's home court in Tel Aviv. Maccabi's failure to advance would mean utter disaster, as team officials battled all season long against Euroleague attempts to relocate the tournament due to ensuing Al-Aqsa intifada and similar UEFA ban on football (soccer) matches hosted in Israel. With 2 seconds remaining and Maccabi trailing by 3 points, Derrick Sharp caught a long pass from Gur Shelef, turned to the basket and fired a game-tying fade-away three-pointer, forcing overtime. Maccabi won that game, advanced to the Final Four and became Euroleague Champion, winning the final game against Skipper Bologna by the all-time record score of 118-74.^[12]

[edit] NBA regular play

On January 3, 1984, Jeff Malone of the Washington Bullets made a crazy sprinting last-second three-point shot as he was falling out of bounds, winning the game 103–102 versus the Detroit Pistons.^[13] The play has been acknowledged by the NBA as one of the greatest plays of all-time.^[14]
On December 20, 2006 in a double-overtime game against the Charlotte Bobcats, with 0.1 of second left, David Lee of the New York Knicks scored the winning basket on a tip-in without breaking the league's so-called Trent Tucker Rule, whereby a player cannot legitimately make a field goal with less than three tenths of a second remaining on the clock. As this applies almost exclusively to jump shots, Lee's shot attempt was the first ever made with 0.1 of a second left on the game clock, post Trent Tucker Rule.^[15]
On March 26, 2007 the Detroit Pistons trailed the Denver Nuggets 95-98 with 1.5 seconds to play. Denver had possession at midcourt with Marcus Camby throwing the inbound pass. Tayshaun Prince was able to deflect the ball to teammate Rasheed Wallace who proceeded to hit a desperation 60-foot shot as time expired. The Pistons would go on to win the game in overtime, 113-109. ^[16]
On March 30, 2007 the Toronto Raptors were trailing the Washington Wizards 106-109 with 3.8 seconds left. Anthony Parker of the Toronto Raptors threw a pass down the court only to have it intercepted by Washington Wizard, Michael Ruffin. Thinking the time had all but run out, Ruffin threw the ball in the air only to have it fall into the hands of Raptor, Morris Peterson. Peterson quickly threw the desperation three from 31-feet out and drained it, barely beating the buzzer and tying the score at 109. The Raptors would later win overtime, 123-118.^[17]
On January 29 2008, the Toronto Raptors were in a similar situation against the Washington Wizards, with the Wizards leading 95-92 with 1.3 seconds left. The Raptors rookie, Jamario Moon inbounded the ball to Anthony Parker, who released the ball beyond the arc and made the shot, tying the game, and sending it into overtime. The Wizards eventually won with a score of 108-104.

[edit] NCAA

On March 28, 1992. In the 1992 East Regional finals, Duke forward Christian Laettner caught an 80 foot pass from Grant Hill, turned, and drained a shot from 17 feet away to give Duke a 104-103 victory.^[18]
On January 31, 2005 Division III school Guilford College was tied 88-88 with Randolph-Macon College with Randolph-Macon shooting two free throws and 0.5 seconds on the clock. After making the first free throw to take a 89-88 lead, the second shot was a miss. Guilford player Jordan Snipes grabbed the rebound under the basket and blindly threw the ball towards the other goal. Incredibly, the shot went through the hoop, giving Guilford a 91-89 win. Amazingly, Snipes would duplicate the feat several days later on the air with the WFMY-2 local news network in Greensboro, North Carolina.^[19]^[20]

[edit] Own basket

On January 8, 1982, Dan Roundfield of the Atlanta Hawks scored when the Milwaukee Bucks' Harvey Catchings accidentally deflected a last-second inbounds pass from the Hawks' Tom McMillen into the basket, with the Hawks winning, 90–88. By NBA rule, a shot into the own basket is credited with the scoring team's player closest to the basket.^[21]