Tag: clutch

Chiefs vs. Browns: Rookie DB seals win with clutch interception

A rookie DB recorded a clutch interception that sealed the Kansas City #Chiefs’ victory over the Cleveland #Browns in Week 15.

The Kansas City Chiefs steamrolled the Cleveland Browns on Sunday to advance their regular season record to 13-1.

The Chiefs’ offense was serviceable for most of the game, but it was the team’s defense that played lights-out football throughout the contest, forcing six turnovers that kept momentum on Kansas City’s side.

On Cleveland’s final possession of the game, Chiefs rookie Jaden Hicks recorded a clutch interception against Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson to seal the victory for Kansas City at Huntington Bank Field.

Take a look at this video of Hicks’ outstanding fourth-quarter interception, which was posted to Twitter by the Chiefs’ official account:

Though Hicks hasn’t been a major part of defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s game plans to this point in the regular season, this play may have earned him more playing time.

Stay tuned to see where Hicks will fit in Spagnuolo’s defense as Kansas City makes its push toward the playoffs.

WATCH: Chiefs WR Ihmir Smith-Marsette comes down with clutch catches vs. Browns

#Chiefs WR Ihmir Smith-Marsette put Kansas City in field goal range on the team’s final drive of the second quarter against the #Browns.

Kansas City Chiefs receiver Ihmir Smith-Marsette followed up his exceptional performance against the Arizona Cardinals with an impressive first half against the Cleveland Browns on Saturday.

He made his mark on Kansas City’s final offensive drive of the first half, securing two catches that helped put the Chiefs in a position to cut into Cleveland’s lead heading into the halftime break.

His first reception of the drive went for 30 yards and got Kansas City onto the Browns’ side of the field.

The second grab came two plays later and went for 28 yards to get the Chiefs in field goal range just before the two-minute warning.

Smith-Marsette is among Kansas City’s most underrated pass catchers and has shown outstanding proficiency in Andy Reid’s offense through training camp and the preseason. These plays may not count toward his regular season statistics, but Smith-Marsette’s effort won’t go unnoticed by the Chiefs’ coaching staff heading into cut week.

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Russell Westbrook brought back his hilariously ‘Ahhh, that’s interesting’ meme

Russell Westbrook gave us a classic Russ meme again

Russell Westbrook has been on quite a tear lately. He’s getting triple-doubles left and right and has helped propel the Wizards into a six winning streak.

A big part of it has been his play in the fourth quarter. He was incredible against the Warriors on Wednesday night during winning time. He scored eight of his 14 points from the game in the fourth quarter and went 3-7 in the period.

That’s been what Westbrook has been doing all season in close games. He’s been one of the best closers in the NBA when things are neck and neck.

Westbrook is the most efficient scorer in the clutch this season with a 65.9% eFG% and 105 total points. That’s…really good.

Surprising, right? A reporter told him that he had the highest clutch field goal percentage in the league this season and Russ seemed pretty surprised himself.

So surprised, in fact,

that he pulled out an old meme.

“Oh, really? Ahhh, that’s interesting. I didn’t know that.” 

This is not a drill, y’all. He really pulled the meme out. The reporter asked him what he makes of it and then he followed up with a common Westbrook-ism.

“Oh, I know what I do. I ain’t worried about everybody else thinking. That’s one thing about me, it doesn’t really matter what nobody else thing. But it’s OK. Just keep doing what I’m doing, keep my head straight.” 

Classic Russ, fam. You gotta love it.

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Damian Lillard had the perfect response to Patrick Beverley’s troll after missing potential game-winning free throws

Ouch.

Patrick Beverley is probably the biggest pest in the NBA right now. And that’s mostly because it doesn’t stop on the court with him.

Even when he’s not playing, he’s trying to find ways to bother his opponent. He did that on Saturday during the Clippers game with the Trail Blazers after Damian Lillard was set up with two potentially game winning free throws.

Lillard and the Blazers were down 118-117 with just under 20 seconds to go when the Blazers’ guard drove to the rim and got to the free throw line.

With Lillard being the absolute master in the clutch that he normally is as well as an 87% free throw shooter,  just about everyone had to expect him to drain the free throws and put the Blazers in front.

He did not. He missed both. And Patrick Beverley, along with Marcus Morris, laughed him out for it. It was bad. 

He even yelled “Dolla Time” when Lillard missed them both. Sheesh.

Then, after the game was over, he pulled out a familiar wave to send them off.

Seems familiar, right? Oh yeah! Here we go.

He absolutely trolled Lillard out of the building after this one. Basketball fans everywhere ate it up.

 

Damian Lillard stayed solid, though. His response to Beverley’s trolling was absolutely perfect.

“Asking me about Patrick Beverley, who, I sent him home before at the end of a game. Paul George just got sent home by me last year in the playoffs. So they know. The reason they reacting like that is because of what they expect from me, which is a sign of respect. And it just shows what I’ve done at a high clip more times than not. So, I’m not offended by it. If anything, it should just tell you how much it hurt them to go through what I put them through in those situations previously. ” 

Nah. He was two seconds away from saying “Paul George is only there because I hit a 35 footer in his eye.” Sheesh.

Clearly, it’s still Lillard time.

[jwplayer MpGGUyps-q2aasYxh]

WATCH: Marcus Smart’s best clutch plays in the NBA (2014-20)

Boston Celtics veteran guard Marcus Smart has sunk a host of clutch shots over the years — watch the best ones in this video.

There may be no better player in the NBA in responding to unthinkable adversity with winning plays than veteran Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart, and in the clutch, he only goes harder.

In fact, the Flower Mound, Texas native excels in the last two minutes of games when the score is close, having assembled quite a repertoire of shots to tie the game or take the lead in the waning seconds of a contest.

And that’s not even considering all of the ridiculous defensive stops he seems to pull out of a hat with regularity, ripping the ball from the hands from centers half again his size, or sending a go-ahead bucket into the stands.

Since he was drafted sixth overall by the Celtics in the 2014 NBA Draft, the Oklahoma State product has been a part of countless clutch plays so far in his six-season career.

Watch the video embedded above to see the very best of them — though you have probably had more than one of them already burned into your memory forever with the sheer incredulity of some of the makes he’s managed over the years.

WATCH: Jaylen Brown’s best clutch shots with the Celtics (2016-20)

Watch all of star Boston Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown’s best clutch shots of his career with the team to date.

Boston Celtics star shooting guard Jaylen Brown has made a name for himself as one of the toughest young defenders in the NBA as he nears the end of his fourth season in the league, and in 2019-20 he has established himself among the game’s elite offensive players as well.

But the Georgia native has also shown himself to be a lethal scorer in the clutch — the final two minutes of a game being the common definition thereof — having tied the game or taken the lead eight of 16 total attempts over the span of his career with the team to date.

And with all of the attention likely to be focused on his All-Star teammate Jayson Tatum, we may well be in for severa more such shots before the curtain closes on the Celtics current season.

Until those restarted games begin again at the end of the month of July, watch the video embedded above to see all of Brown’s clutch makes in his career so far — the cold-blooded killer that is Boston’s starting two guard is worth the watch.

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WATCH: Jayson Tatum’s best clutch plays in the NBA (2017-2020)

Boston Celtics All-Star forward Jayson Tatum has sunk his fair share of clutch plays in his still-young NBA career — and you can watch them all here.

Boston Celtics All-Star swingman Jayson Tatum has shown a knack for hitting clutch shots almost from the moment he became a Celtic, and has assembled a very impressive body of work in that regard for a third-year player.

The Duke product has managed to tie the game or take the lead in the last two minutes of a game — the general definition of a clutch shot — 17 times in 28 such attempts over the course of his career to date, in fact.

Now, with the season set to resume at the Disney restart in late July, the first-time All-Star may well be on his way to logging a few more such shots to his repertoire.

But until then, we will have to make due with compilations like this one to remind us of the most clutch Boston forward since Paul Pierce’s late-game capabilities.

So watch the video embedded above while we wait out the ramp-up and scrimmage games; not too much more than a week from now, the games will count again.

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Watch: Ten Most Clutch Touchdown Runs in Notre Dame History

Some great memories in here as Notre Dame has released their ten most clutch runs of all time in program history. Football factory fun!

Notre Dame has been playing football for a very long time and have won a lot of games in that time.  Several have come down to the wire and ultimately been decided by a late touchdown run that put the Irish over the top.

Recently, Notre Dame’s advanced media put together their ten best clutch touchdown runs in the history of the program.  Before we discuss the list let’s watch it together during a trip down memory lane, first.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv14MnddCSg&w=560&h=315]

Take aways from the list…

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Is Paul Pierce is the most clutch player in NBA history?

By this definition, Paul Pierce is the most clutch player in NBA history — and another Boston Celtic makes a surprise showing in the top five.

Could a Boston Celtic actually have beaten out Michael Jordan as the most clutch player in league history?

It depends on how you define that quality — was Michael Jordan’s pass to hit an open Steve Kerr to sink the game-winner in Game 6 of the 1997 NBA Finals clutch? Had he taken it himself and missed, league history could be very different.

We all know The Truth is among the league’s most lethal late-clock players ever, but it might come to as a surprise to know he was the most clutch player in NBA history among players who either hit a buzzer-beater, or assisted one.

Our sister site HoopsHype put together a comprehensive list of such players, and legendary Celtics forward Paul Pierce was at the top of the list of the league’s most clutch players in history when taking into account not only clutch last-second shots but the assists that made them possible.

But who are Pierce’s peers in this rarified air?

While the usual suspects are clustered near the top as might be expected, there’s at least one other former Celtic who might surprise — so let’s take a look.

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Oklahoma City coming up clutch in crunch-time

The Thunder have won eight of their last nine games, none of which have been by more than six points.

It wasn’t too long ago that the conversation surrounding the Thunder was how they couldn’t close out close games.

But somewhere along the line, the narrative has shifted.

Oklahoma City is now one of the best in the league when it comes to tight games in the clutch. Sixteen of their 19 wins have been five-point games within the final five minutes. That’s by far the most in the NBA.

As of January 3, the Thunder are winners of four in a row and eight of their last nine. Of those eight, none have been by more than six points.

Sure, timely play and some luck has something to do with it. But it’s been a subtle mental shift in the way the team looks at defending in late-game situations that been the driving force behind the Thunder’s recent success.

Chris Paul, who himself has been incredibly clutch for OKC this season, told The Oklahoman that it’s something the team talks about.

“We talk about it as a team — really good teams in our league … the last 4 or 5 minutes really lock down, really tighten up,” Chris Paul said after the Thunder did it again Tuesday night in a 106-101 win against Dallas. “We’ve got to figure out how to put a whole game together, but I’m happy with what we’ve been doing.”

The Thunder did just that against San Antonio on Thursday. Down 14 in the first half, Oklahoma City held the Spurs to just 37% shooting in the third quarter, cutting the deficit down to just two.

In the fourth, OKC opened on an 18-9 run, pulling ahead for good on a bucket by Dennis Schroder with 8:19 left to play. The Spurs twice got within four in the closing minutes but timely shots by Paul and made free throws by Schroder allowed the Thunder to escape San Antonio with a win.

“You cannot expect the game to go the way you expect every time,” Danilo Gallinari told The Oklahoman after making a key defensive play against Luke Doncic in the final minute of Tuesday night’s win. “You can’t just be a spectator hoping that the game goes your way. You’ve got to go get it.”

Oklahoma City will look to “go get it” against the Cavaliers when they tip-off tonight in Cleveland. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m. CT.