Inside the mind of Jamal Shead during the eight-second violation
The Toronto Raptors controlled the game early in the fourth quarter, and it seemed like Toronto would be travelling to Cleveland with the series all tied up at two apiece. But the Cavaliers came back with a huge counterpunch midway through the quarter to take the game into their grasp. With just a few minutes to go in the game, it looked like the Raptors’ hopes of a tied series were squandered, and the game was thrown away.
Then the unthinkable happened: Toronto started a furious comeback in a game where buckets were so pivotal as both teams struggled to score. Late in the quarter, in a one-point game, Toronto’s leader, Scottie Barnes, picked up Donovan Mitchell from the backcourt after an inbound as the shot clock started to bleed rather quickly, if you were to ask Mitchell. Before you knew it, Mitchell had one second to make it past the halfway line to beat the eight-second violation rule that forces you to bring the ball up to halfcourt within eight seconds. That’s when it hit Jamal Shead.
” I saw Scottie working, forcing Mitchell to turn a couple of times, and I watched the clock get down to 17, thinking if I could run up there and make something happen, even if he backs up, we could get an eight-second violation,” said Shead as he realized how low the shot clock was getting. You can see the moment he realizes it, and he absolutely blitzes Mitchell and puts it all on the line for his team.
“I got a chance to get my hand on it, and it was a really big play, so I showed emotion,” Shead concluded on his thought process during and after the play. Shead hasn’t had the greatest series offensively apart from his hot shooting night in game 1, where he came away with 17 points, but he continues to show a ton of heart on the defensive side. Even in game 3, he came away with a very impressive 5 steals.
It’s another Raptors playoff play that will go down in history as one of the best, as it isn’t near the level of Kawhi Leonard’s game 7 shot that sent the Philadelphia 76ers home in round 2 of the 2019 playoffs, but it could rank up there with Norman Powell’s steal and dunk from game 5 of the 1st round matchup against the Indiana Pacers during the 2016 playoffs.
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