The Philadelphia 76ers needed somebody to step up and knock down a big shot. They found themselves trailing the Milwaukee Bucks 93-90 after seeing a 19-point lead disappear and coach Doc Rivers called a timeout to draw up a play.
The play ended up being Furkan Korkmaz in the corner and he knocked down a clutch triple with 0.4 seconds left to tie the game at 93. Milwaukee then missed their shot and the game went to overtime.
The Bucks eventually pulled away and won the game 109-105 in the extra session, but Korkmaz knocking down a clutch shot is just what the doctor ordered.
“I feel weird because that was an important shot, we’ll take it but at the end of the day, we lost the game,” said Korkmaz. “We couldn’t really celebrate it. There was nothing to celebrate at the end of the game so that’s the worst part. The small mistakes that we made, made us lose the game.”
The shot was not even supposed to be for Korkmaz. The play was for Shake Milton to go make a move and try and get the Sixers to overtime, but the Bucks played it well and it opened up an opportunity for Korkmaz to make a big shot.
“It was a big shot for him,” said Tobias Harris. “I thought it reminds me of the Portland shot right in the corner, this one the opposite corner but, Furk’s a great shooter and then that play was actually drawn up, he was probably the second option, but he was open on the look, Shake made the pass to him and he was able to let it go.”
A guy like Korkmaz is a streaky player so the team will need more of this from him moving forward as he has been playing better since the All-Star break.
“We expect that of Furk and he’s been playing really good basketball, and his ability to stretch the floor,” Harris added. “I think that’s definitely a big confidence booster for him too.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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