Nets’ Royce O’Neale says he was in ‘right place, right time’ for game-winning putback
Brooklyn Nets forward Royce O’Neale did not have a good offensive game in Sunday’s 102-101 win over the Miami Heat. For the game, he finished with eight points on 3-for-11 shooting from the field (27.2%) and 1-of-7 from behind the three-point line (14.2%). However, his last bucket made all of the difference in this game.
With the Nets trailing 101-100, Kyrie Irving shot a three from 30-feet out with about eight seconds left in the game. He missed, but Yuta Watanabe was able to keep the ball alive as it bounced into O’Neale’s break basket just for him to softly float the ball into the net. At that moment, the Heat still had 3.2 seconds left to make something happen, but O’Neale already did his job.
In all, O’Neale finished with six rebounds, six assists, and two blocks as he did everything else to make up from his lack of scoring. O’Neale explained postgame what led to his game-winning putback:
“Nic (Claxton) got the rebound, it was a big time play. We knew Ky (Irving) was going to take the shot. We trust him with that and then, that’s a great opportunity to crash the glass, especially at the time. Yuta (Watanabe) did a great job keeping the ball alive and I was there. Right place, right time.”
Brooklyn’s next game is Thursday as they host the Boston Celtics.
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Player grades: Kyrie Irving scores 29 in nail-biting 102-101 win over the Heat
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NBA Twitter reacts to the Nets’ 102-101 win over the Miami Heat
Story originally appeared on Nets Wire
Source: Yahoo Sports
