As seen above, Fred Van Vleet’s late two off an inbounds play secured a nervy win for the Raptors (Quick Reaction, Post-Game Podcast). Nick Nurse spoke about the shot, which came with the Raptors nursing a two-point lead late in Washington:
There’s a lot of ways to win a game, and I’m not sure I’ve ever won one with a nutmeg. You know what a nutmeg is? Between the legs, pick it up, and hit a runner. It actually was pretty good. If we had caught the first one, it might’ve been a layup, but we wanted to make it a little harder.
Nurse is referring to the ball going between Ibaka’s legs and trickling all the way to Van Vleet, who had the situational awareness to get the shot up at the right moment. Fred Van Vleet was asked about the shot:
Maybe five seconds left and I think Serge was pretty open for the shot and it just happened to go between his legs, and I was coming back around the top of the key and was able to get the ball. I was trying to get a free look at the rim, and was able to take a step to the side with about two seconds left on the shot clock.
On there still being two seconds on the shot clock when he fired:
At that point you got to take the look, take the best shot available. Fourteen seconds or twelve seconds doesn’t make any difference for defensive purposes. I just wanted to get a clean look, and I was able to get one right at that moment, and I just had to let it go, and was able to knock it down.
Big win on the road for the Raptors with their main gun out.
