How Suns pulled off crazy overtime win at New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS – Unbelievable.

That’s the only way to describe the finish to Phoenix’s 138-136 dramatic overtime win over New Orleans because even the Suns can’t believe how the game ended at the Smoothie King Center..

“I don’t know what happened and I still don’t know what happened, but hey, we’ll take it,” said an ecstatic Kelly Oubre Jr. in his return to his hometown Saturday night. 

Josh Jackson’s game-tying 3 with 1.1 seconds left in overtime, followed by Devin Booker’s game-winning free throws climaxed the craziest 6.5 seconds in recent NBA memory, if not ever.

Let’s break it down.

The five-second violation

Up three with 6.5 seconds left, New Orleans was out of timeouts.

Remember that timeout part.

So Elfrid Payton, a former Sun, tried to inbound the ball from the sideline, but Phoenix forced a five-second violation.

However, the Suns thought that Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry was trying to call a timeout.

“They ended up calling the five seconds instead of giving him the timeout,” Jackson said.

The 3 

Inbounding the ball from the side, Jackson threw it to Booker on the other side of midcourt. He pushed the ball down right side of the court and drew a double team.

After all he, scored a game-high 40 points. New Orleans had reason to double.

As fans were yelling for the Pelicans to foul Booker, he kicked it to Jackson, who ran free to the opposite wing. Darius Miller ran off Booker to contest the shot, but Jackson rose over him to knock down the 3 with 1.1 seconds left.

“That’s a bad man, that’s a bad man,” said Suns rookie 7-footer Deandre Ayton as Jackson was doing his postgame interview.

A career 28.5 percent 3-point shooting, Jackson hit his second one from deep to tie the game.

“I just stepped up and shot it,” Jackson said. “That was it.”

The technical

Now a tie game, Gentry called a timeout, but New Orleans didn’t have one. So there was mad confusion on the court, but Gentry admitted after the game he called it.

“That was my mistake,” he said. “That was on me. I called the timeout, we didn’t have a timeout, and that’s where the technical came from. I thought we had one left. We didn’t have one left. That was all on me. I’ll take the hit for that one.”

Suns coach Igor Kokoskov loves him some Gentry. He gave him his first NBA job back with the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2000-01 season, but wasn’t going to let that one go.

“I was complaining because it was a winning play,” Kokoskov said. “They called timeout on the first one. It happens. That’s the game of basketball.”

The free throws

So Booker went to the line to break the tie. An 87 percent free-throw shooter, Booker missed five free throws in the game.

He wasn’t going to miss another one.

With the crowd booing, Booker hit the technical free throw to put Phoenix up one.

“Everyone really thinks I’m about to miss this, but I’m not,” a smiling Booker said. “I have missed way too many tonight. I couldn’t miss another one.”

Since it was a technical foul, Phoenix kept possession. Jackson caught the inbounds pass and was fouled with 0.6 seconds left.

Less than 24 hours after missing two free throws that would’ve cut Houston’s lead one late in Friday’s road loss to the Rockets, Jackson made the first to make the difference two.

He missed the second, but time expired as Kenrich Williams rebounded the ball.

Suns win.

Unbelievable.

"That whole sequence of basketball was like, 'Did we just win?'" Ayton said. "Like, what just happened?"

The hometown celebration 

After the game, Oubre celebrated with family and friends a huge win in his hometown.

“It feels good to be back home, but it feels even better to leave here with the Phoenix Suns and getting a victory,” said Oubre, who scored a career-high 32 points. “We’re going back to Phoenix happy. We’re going to build off this.”

And that’s just the half of it.

This was after Phoenix (17-54) allowed 33 points off 22 turnovers.

This was all after Pelicans (30-42) guard Frank Jackson missed a game-winning jumper at the end of regulation

This was after Ayton got ejected for the first in his NBA career after getting a second technical near the end of the third.

This was after Phoenix blew a 13-point, second half lead.

This was after the Suns went into the game without Tyler Johnson (sore right knee) and Richaun Holmes.

This was one of the craziest finishes ever and Phoenix, with resolve and luck on its side, somehow won.

“That’s the beauty of the sport, man,” Booker said. “You never know what can happen. We came in the locker room and we’re looking around like, we still don’t know what happened. We’ll take the win for sure.”