Basketball fans hoping the NBA Finals series between the Golden State Warriors and the Toronto Raptors went to a game seven had their wish come true on Saturday thanks to a dramatic NBA 2K League tournament matchup.
The Warriors Gaming Squad and Raptors Uprising GC clashed in the quarterfinals of the mid-season tournament known as The Ticket. The 13th-seed Raptors came in as the underdog to the fifth-seed Warriors.
Hosted this year at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, teams are playing for a slice of the $180,000 prize pool and a guaranteed berth in the postseason playoffs.
Coming off an upset win over the fourth-seed Celtics Crossover Gaming, the Raptors were hoping to continue their momentum, as well as follow in their big brother’s footsteps by beating the Warriors in the postseason.
The entire game was a low-scoring defensive stalemate, seeing no quarter end with a score difference of more than three points. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Warriors led 37-35.
With just under 14 seconds left to play, Charles “CB13” Bostwick stepped to the free throw line with his Warriors up by one point at 51-50.
CB13 sunk the first shot with ease, but missed the second, allowing Gerald “Sick x 973” Knapp of the Raptors to rebound and lead a charge down the court.
Sick passed to Kenneth “Kenny Got Work” Hailey, who passed it right back to Sick, setting him up to nail a clutch two-point jumper in the corner to tie the game at 52.
The Warriors called their final timeout to draw up a play in hopes of avoiding an overtime period with the Raptors.
With a mere 3.4 seconds left to close out the game, Warriors small forward Jin Choe handled the inbound.
Jin passed to CB13 who dished to Alexander “Bsmoove” Reese at the top of the key. Bsmoove rose up and hit the go-ahead shot with less than one second remaining.
With no timeouts left, the Raptors could only make a deep inbound pass and put up a Hail Mary three-pointer that bounced off the right of the rim, eliminating them from The Ticket.
BSmoove was awarded the Intel Player of the Game after racking up 25 points, the last two of which won his team the game.
The Warriors will take on eight-seed Magic Gaming at 6pm CT today for their chance to play either Knicks Gaming or Pacers Gaming in the championship.
The Warriors Gaming Squad will undoubtedly be using this win as trash talk ammunition against Raptors Uprising GC for a long time, especially with it occurring just two days after their respective NBA franchises faced opposite outcomes in their championship series.
