Hail Mary shot lifts Grizzlies to victory
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan (AP) — Detroit sports fans can be excused if the last week has ruined their holiday mood.
Six days after Aaron Rodgers beat the Lions with a 60-yard Hail Mary pass as time expired at Ford Field, the Pistons were on the wrong end of a similar finish 30 miles north at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
This time, it was Matt Barnes knocking down a halfcourt shot with 1.1 seconds to play that gave the Memphis Grizzlies a 93-92 victory over Detroit.
“I knew I was ahead of a lot of people, and I wasn’t sure what the time was, but I had space to get a clean look and I shot it,” Barnes said. “It was a crazy, lucky shot to hit and win a game.”
Marc Gasol pulled Memphis to 9290 by making one of two free throws with 29.4 seconds to play, and Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger chose to play defense rather than foul. Marcus Morris missed a contested shot, and the ball was knocked away from Ersan Ilyasova before Andre Drummond missed a tip.
Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy shook his head when asked if Ilyasova had been fouled.
“After losing a game on a halfcourt shot, I’m going to get myself a huge fine from the league?” he asked. “No.”
As Memphis grabbed the rebound, Joerger started to call a timeout, but stopped when he saw his team breaking up the floor. Barnes could have gotten closer – he let fly from halfcourt with time left on the clock – but the shot rattled home. Once again, a Detroit crowd fell silent as a visiting team celebrated. “The play we called if they missed was to dribble three times and shoot it with 4 seconds left from halfcourt,” Joerger joked. “We executed it very well.”
Detroit still had 1.1 seconds left, and managed to anger its coach as Morris missed another tough shot.
“Instead of running the play, we broke it off after the first option,” a frustrated Van Gundy said. “I told them that I still don’t know if the play works, because we didn’t run it in Washington and we didn’t run it again tonight.”
RAPTORS 97, SPURS 94 In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 28 points and Kyle Lowry added 19 as Toronto ended San Antonio’s fourgame winning streak.
Luis Scola had 16 points and Toronto never trailed in handing San Antonio just its third loss in the last 18 games.
Manu Ginobili had 17 points off the bench for the Spurs, who also got 13 points from LaMarcus Aldridge. Boston 105, Chicago 100 Charlotte 99, Miami 81 Houston 109, Washington 103 Memphis 93, Detroit 92 Toronto 97, San Antonio 94 L.A. Clippers 109, Milwaukee 95 Minnesota 123, L.A. Lakers 122, OT Phoenix 107, Orlando 104 Utah 106, New York 85 Atlanta 98, Dallas 95