Yes, There Is A Santa Claus, And His Name Is Max Strus
Christmas was over around two months ago, but the Cleveland Cavaliers wing Max Strus was bringing gifts to all the good boys and girls at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Tuesday night when the Cavs took on the Dallas Mavericks.
The Cavs were up 118-117 with eight seconds left to play, and Cleveland was in-bounding the basketball with no timeouts remaining. Evan Mobley had to force a bad pass, which went out of bounce and turned it over to Dallas.
The Mavericks would take possession, and a newly acquired forward, P.J. Washington would hit a two-point layup to give Dallas the 119-118 lead with two seconds left, and it looked like the game was over until one Max Strus hit a mid-court shot at the buzzer to give the Cavs a 121-119 win.
Strus was red-hot in the fourth quarter, helping bring the Cavs back from a ten-point deficit where he went 4 for 4 from three in a total of 67 seconds to keep the Cavs in the game.
Strus's heroic performance was one that Cleveland will remember for a while. On the same night, the Cavs welcomed back the man who hit the biggest shot in franchise history, Kyrie Irving, when he pretty much hit the game-winning shot in Game Seven of the NBA Finals in 2016 to give the city of Cleveland their first title in 52 years and the first NBA Championship in franchise history.
Strus's shot isn't as big as the one Irving hit eight years ago, but it was still one heck of a shot to give the Cavs a win in a game they needed.
The Cavs were 1-2 since coming back from the All-Star break last Thursday, and of course, both of those losses didn't have star player Donovan Mitchell, who was out with an illness, but dropping three out of the first four back wouldn't have been good. It is essential to keep the number two seed in the Eastern Conference.
Read More NBA News From Stadium Rant Here: NBA News
EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNTS:
Order your favorite whiskey or spirit for the big game right to your doorstep and use code STADIUMRANT10 for a 10% discount at Caskers
Use code STADIUMRANT20 for a 20% discount at Bulletproof Coffee, SwingJuice and Performix.
If you love to shotgun beers, use code STADIUMRANT10 at Wild Man Drinking Company.
MORE FROM STADIUM RANT:
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to our newsletter here.
Check out Stadium Rant Original shows on our Youtube channel and subscribe!