by Micah Hart
Cleaning up the rest of my to-do list on a Sunday, I was on vacation last week for this Horry Scale entry from the Magic’s Jameer Nelson.
Once again, the Horry scale examines a shot in the categories of difficulty, game situation (was the team tied or behind at the time), importance (playoff game or garden-variety Clippers-Nets game), and celebration, and give it an overall grade on a scale of 1-5 Robert Horrys.
Difficulty
The shot is from deep, but otherwise, not all that difficult of a shot. Ty Lawson is defending him close, but at the same time is primarily guarding against the drive, so when Nelson rises up, he’s got more than enough room to get a clean shot. In fact, if anything Nelson should be penalized for taking such a low-percentage shot when he had time to create something much much better.
Game Situation
Tie ballgame, and Nelson gets the ball unobstructed in the frontcourt with 5.9 ticks on the clock, so he has plenty of time to make his move.
Importance
Denver has been playing well of late so it’s nice to beat a good team, but the Magic are pretty much set as the 4-seed in the East. All in all, not a win that will move the needle in 2010-11.
Celebration
Of course, don’t tell Nelson’s teammates it wasn’t a big deal. Ample celebration from the Magic, including the team dance circle at midcourt usually reserved for much bigger occasions.
Grade
1 Horry. I don’t mean to be stingy, but all in all there’s not a lot to recommend in this one (other than the celebration). It was a pretty terrible shot by Nelson, and if it hadn’t gone in I imagine he’d have heard a few words from Crankypants McMustache, aka Stan Van Gundy. Still, the shot dropped, and the Magic won, so I’m sure they’ll happily settle for the one.
What do you think?
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Catch up on every single game-winning buzzer beater during the season and see how it rates on the Horry Scale.
What do you mean by he should be penalized for taking a low-percentage shot? That was where he got comfortable and besides you do not have to do what people always expect you to do. I remember Lebron James got blocked for his layup game-winner attempt by Amare. Besides, I think the whole idea was to setup for the 3. Anyway, as a fan of Magic I will give it a 5 but in all honesty since the only risk was to play in overtime I think a 2 will suffice.
Thats nonsense man, since when your horry scale is supposed to judge scores based on SHOT PERCENTAGES.
sometimes you just gotta believe in yourself
plus all the other players were standing in the corner
thus allowing nelson to have a one on one
I give it a 0.5 (penalizing it a half-Horry for the half-second that should have been put back on the clock.)