Keldon Johnson’s game-winner a fitting end to Spurs’ wild win over the Warriors

Well, that was about the wildest final minute of basketball I’ve ever seen. With the Spurs visiting the Steph Curry-less Warriors hoping to get the bad taste of their recent loss to the Pelicans out of their mouths, things were all tied up at 107 apiece with 54 seconds left when chaos ensued. After a Klay Thompson miss with 22 seconds left, Otto Porter Jr got the offensive rebound, and Devin Vassell inexplicably used the Spurs foul to give out near midcourt even though the game was tied and the Spurs had time to get a stop and a chance at the game-winner.

The Warriors then got another offensive, and although the Spurs appeared to have them trapped at midcourt with 4 seconds left, Vassell was called for touch foul to send Andrew Wiggins to the line. He made the first to give the Warriors the lead but missed the second, which Jakob Poeltl rebounded and was in the act of calling a timeout when Kevon Looney was surprisingly called for a loose ball foul, sending Poeltl to the line. He made the first and missed the second, which Keldon Johnson rebounded and banked in with 0.3 sec left for the win.

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Matt Bonner summed up the chaos pretty well afterwards, and suffice it to say Steve Kerr was not happy with the way the refs handled the final seconds for either team, feeling they should have let those two soft foul calls on Vassell and Looney in the final seconds go and let the teams decide the outcome.

Believe it or not, there was more basketball played before that. Josh Richardson had by far his best game as a Spur, filling in as 6th man for an injured Lonnie Walker with 25 points on 8-12 shooting.

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Josh Primo got his second straight start and had a nice 11-point outing while fighting his way off the rookie wall, including a bigtime dunk off an offensive rebound and Euro-stepping layup in transition.

Despite his errors in the final seconds and overall poor shooting night, Vassell still hit 3-8 from three, including the halftime buzzer beater while weaving through traffic.

Overall it was a fitting way to win what was probably the wildest 2-2 week of basketball this season, and surely there is plenty more chaos to come in the final four weeks of the regular season.

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