Jacque Vaughn had drawn up the final play of Friday night's game for Kevin Durant, but the team's leader and superstar, anticipating a focus on him being the man to take the final shot, deferred to Kyrie Irving.
"I really drew up the play for Kevin," Vaughn said. "We knew they had a foul to give. Drew it up for Kevin, but Kevin communicated that they were probably going to trap him, so we switched Kevin and Ky. Ky was ready for it, he said he wanted it, so we zipped him to the top, and he did what he does. He's unbelievable. Great shot."
What Irving did was rush to the top of the key, take the inbounds pass from Ben Simmons, drive to his right, crossover Fred Vanvleet, step back, and drill the game-winner at the buzzer to give the surging Nets a 119-116 win in Toronto.
"Who would've thought I'd come into Toronto and hit my first game-winner buzzer beater in my NBA career?" Irving said. "Pray that there's more in the future. Glad that we got this win."
Irving's clutch triple was the first game-winning buzzer beater for the Nets in over five years, the first since Brook Lopez stunned the Pistons in Brooklyn in a similar situation, with the Nets inbounding the ball with less than three seconds left.
For Irving, the opportunity only came after a talk with Durant, who deferred to Irving to take the final shot.
"Just comes with the trust that we're building here," Irving said. "Jacque had a play call that we were about to go execute, me and K had some dialogue and we decided to run the play for me. Good matchup versus Fred, and I just got the better of him one time."
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
Follow WFAN on Social Media
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitch
Listen live to WFAN:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker (just say 'Play W-F-A-N')
