The ball went up. Kawhi Leonard had struggled all night, right from the start. On a night where Game 7 pressure compressed so many nerves, it happened to Kawhi, too. He missed shots, but never stopped taking them, because he knew this could be his last game of the season. It had been hard. Games like these should be hard.And thanks to Kawhi and Kyle Lowry and some snarling defence, the Toronto Raptors had clawed to a tie with 4.2 seconds left, and Kawhi had the ball and was dribbling right, but needed space. He lost Ben Simmons but picked up Joel Embiid, the giant, a defensive monster unlike any other. All night, the Raptors saw the seven-foot-two Embiid and ran the other way. Kawhi had no choice. He hit a key three in Game 4 over Embiid. But he needed room to shoot, and it wasn’t there.So Leonard was running out of road, but he knew where the road led. He picked up the ball after four dribbles and he shot the ball from the right corner, inside the three-point line, with Embiid flying at him. He sent it so high; he had to, because Embiid was right there. He ran calculations the whole time.He probably wasn’t thinking that 18 years earlier, Vince Carter had a shot to beat Philadelphia in Game 7 before facing Milwaukee, and he missed. A lot of other people might have been, though.Read more:The first Raptors-Sixers Game 7 still resonates 18 years laterRelentless Raptors win Game 7 battle worthy of the occasionRaptors and Sixers will go as far as stars take them in Game 7“We ran a similar play during the Magic series and I ended up just catch-and-shooting the ball, it was probably like three seconds,” said Leonard. “So I just remembered that moment and knowing I had time, at least, to pump-fake or take a dribble … I ended up catching it and just trying to get to a space so I could get a shot off. Embiid was guarding me. He’s taller, longer than me. So, ended up finding a spot that I like, that I work on, ended up getting to t ...
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