‘Maxed out’: Strus sinks 59-footer at final horn as Cavs beat Mavericks
CLEVELAND — Max Strus caught the pass, and with barely any time to think, nevermind shoot, one thing crossed his mind.
“Get it up,” he said. Down it went.
Strus drilled a 59-footer as time expired, his fifth 3-pointer in the final four minutes, to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a wild 121-119 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.
After the Mavericks took the lead on P.J. Washington’s dunk with 2.9 seconds left, the Cavs, out of timeouts, inbounded the ball to Evan Mobley, who passed it back to Strus — whose barrage of four 3s in a span of 67 seconds down the stretch brought Cleveland back from a 10-point deficit.
Strus then took a dribble before launching his shot from well beyond mid-court. As it swished through the net, Strus was tackled to the floor by his celebrating teammates as the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse crowd erupted.
Strus said he knew it was good from the moment it left his hand.
“The last five felt pretty good,” he said. “I felt a rhythm and it’s fun when you do that. Every time I shot it, I felt like it was going in, and it was. Same with the last one.”
Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points, Strus added 21 and Jarrett Allen 19 for the Cavs, who improved to 12-3 since Jan. 26 following a win many of them will long remember.
“Man, just to see it go through, especially what he did for us in the fourth, it had to be him, too,” Mitchell said. “You dream of a shot like that. So for him to get that after what he did for us, the whole fourth quarter, man.”
Strus said the play wasn’t designed but just unfolded.
“Don (Mitchell) wasn’t in the game so somebody else had to do it,” he joked.
According to Basketball Reference, Strus’ sensational shot is the second-longest game-winner in the 3-point era (1979-80). Devonte Graham made a 61-footer for New Orleans to beat Oklahoma City on Dec. 15, 2021.