Kawhi Leonard saved raptors in a helping hand Toronto will never forget | Bleacher's report

TORONTO – Kawhi Leonard has returned to the Toronto Raptors' bench at Scotiabank Arena. The clock indicated 4.2 seconds. The score was tied. Leonard had been – and completed– all for the Raptors all night long. He was the reason they were in this position, about to go to the Eastern Conference finals for the second time in franchise history.

But he had also opened the door of the Philadelphia 76ers, giving them an opportunity to steal the series. Moments earlier, he was standing on the free throws line, his team led by two and the Sixers at the end of the allotted time. Splash both, and the Raptors would have possessed a three-point lead. Leonard hit first but the second shot, a straight line, slammed to the front of the rim. Sixers striker Tobias Harris grabbed him. He threw the ball in front of him to Jimmy Butler, who carried him over the outstretched arms of Raptors forward Serge Ibaka and lifted him from the post, equalizing the match.

Leonard's shoulders sagged, his head dropped. Raptors head coach Nick Nurse called a timeout to prepare a game. He called on Raptors leader Kyle Lowry to halve the field and Leonard to go to the perimeter of the Raptors. Screen of Pascal Siakam. Sitting on the bench, Leonard returned his hard drive.

At first, he thought of a pointer to three that he had recently missed. "It ended up being short, I knew I had to ride it higher than that," he said later.

Then he dug deeper to return to Toronto's first-round match against Orlando Magic. The nurse had called a similar room at one time.

"I ended up catching and shooting the ball, it probably took about three seconds," Leonard will say later. Sitting on the bench while listening to Nurse, he noticed the clock. "There were four seconds left and, remembering that moment, I knew I had time to try to gain space rather than just catching and shooting the ball."

There is a rule in basketball, most players learn early: you can usually take a dribble for every second of the clock.

Leonard received the home pass from Raptors center Marc Gasol and took four big dribbles to the right, moving away from the Sixers 'trap and Ben Simmons, the Sixers' defending player, heading for 7 & # 39; 0 "Joel Embiid He threw the ball over Embiid's arms and into the air, his 39th shot of the game – this one a rainbow as opposed to his typical flash – and then fell to the ground that he listened to the final hum of the horn and watched the ball bounce once on the edge, then over and over again.

And then one last time before getting through the net, leading the Raptors to a 92-90 home win against seventh game, the first-ever drummer-buzzer of the seventh game in the NBA's history.

"Like a fucking movie," that's how Raptors goaltender Danny Green described the play to Raptors assistant coach Jeremy Castleberry in a dizzying locker room for the Raptors after the game.

"Sometimes it takes a bit of luck," said Marc Gasol of Raptors Center.

"It's nice that the scales are here tonight," Nurse said.

It's a cliché to describe the sport as a game of thumbs, but the cliches also exist for a reason. They are often true, and in this case, those thumbs – Leonard's shooting escaping from Embiid's finger, the ball rolling forward on the edge and towards the net instead of going back and toward the ground – could change the future not only Raptors but also the entire NBA.

Leonard's situation in Toronto is well documented. During the summer, after deciding that his very good team had reached a plateau and was eager to build an excellent one, the Raptors team's chairman, Masai Ujiri, launched the die: he offered to the favorite of his fans, DeMar DeRozan, San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Leonard unhappy. Leonard will be a free agent this summer. The Raptors had a season to convince him. Participating in the final or winning a championship would provide no assurance, but there was no better recruitment tool either.

That's what was at stake in Game 7, a game in which Leonard had to clear his way and score up to 41 points. There seemed to be times when he seemed to be the only Raptor to want to take a hit. A loss in such circumstances could have undermined all of Toronto's efforts. Instead, the Raptors offered Leonard a gift, except for a moment he will never forget, but he seldom allows himself to be savored: the opportunity to feel.

"I'm a guy who pretends I was there before, so the last time you saw me screaming, it's probably when we won (during his stay in San Antonio)" said Leonard. "Whenever it's a moment that I have not really lived, I probably try to give and show emotion and let things unfold."

While Leonard was explaining to reporters how a human emotion had managed to escape, Embiid was among his teammates, picking up slices of orange in a black Tupperware container in search of answers. The cloakroom was silent. Jimmy Butler has studied the footprint of a box partition.

Embiid had played 45 minutes that night, a figure that just a few years ago, as he was recovering from several surgeries and that he was kept in bubble wrap, would have seemed unfathomable. This was not his best performance. He sometimes had difficulty in attack but nevertheless finished the match with a solid score of 21 points on a shot of 6 against 18, with 11 rebounds, three blocks and four assists.

More telling: as had been the case all season, the Sixers had hemorrhagic points each time they left the ground. He was their best player and their most powerful player just like he had been all year. He had given everything to this season, playing more games and minutes than ever before. Leonard's shot seemed to break him.

He collapsed in Marc Gasol's arms after the ball fell to the ground.

"You will be in this position again," Gasol told him. "Do not see this as a failure, lose is not a failure."

T.J. McConnell, longtime teammate of Embiid and the only other player remaining from The Process years, brought Embiid back to the locker room, where he was greeted by his girlfriend. She wiped her tears. She put her hand on her cheek. She wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Have you ever lost a seventh game?" he later asked General Manager Elton Brand. Brand told him that he had done it.

Embiid showered and dressed. He addressed the podium reporters alongside Butler.

"I do not know, I mean, I do not know, Game 7. Lose a game that way, last time after a hard-fought game, I feel we've had a chance, a lot of things are happening. he offered when asked to describe what he was feeling. He then summarized his thoughts more succinctly: "It sucks, I do not know, I can not explain it, it just sucks."

"Seeing him have the emotion that he has, and he's one of the many in this locker room, is painful for all of us but to your question with Joel, he's going to look into the rearview mirror and remember it, "Sixers head coach Brett Brown said. "He will come out better, smarter, stronger and more aware of what it takes to play longer than we could play."

The question is now: who will be with him for this race? Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris are both free agents (Butler was upset when asked after the match his contract). Ben Simmons is ready for an extension. And of course, there is Brown. For months, Sixers Managing Partner Josh Harris has been fueling rumors that not leading the team to the conference finals could be costly for Brown. It sounds silly to leave some rebounds for deciding the future of a coach, but that's what Harris refused to publicly support Brown, he said.

The two men met halfway through a few moments before the start. The conversation ended with a punch. After the loss, Brown was asked if he was responding to these rumors.

"We talked a lot internally, the club can react to that," said Brown. He added, "I am proud of what we have built.The mission is to move on to the next step."

For the Sixers, this next step will have to wait. The Raptors, meanwhile, can advance. Maybe they beat the Milwaukee Bucks, maybe they fall. For now, thanks to a few centimeters, their season is alive and gives hope for the present and beyond.

Yaron Weitzman covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow Yaron on Twitter, @YaronWeitzmanand sign up for his newsletter right here.