San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker has forged what will likely end up as a Hall-of-Fame career out of his ability to finish at the rim. However, his performances in the first two games of his team's Western Conference Semifinals series against the Golden State Warriors left much to be desired. Coming into Friday night's Game 3 in Oakland, Parker had shot just a combined 18-of-43 from the floor (41.9 percent).
It's safe to say that Parker stepped up in the first half of Game 3. Take, for instance, this wild shot from the final seconds of the first quarter. After getting beat off the dribble, Warriors wing Draymond Green fouled Parker and sent him stumbling towards the basket. Parker put up a shot in the fashion you'd expect from a man who had appeared to lose all sense of balance, releasing the ball from his hip in some kind of bizarre cross-body prayer.
Except it went in, because that's just the kind of half Parker had. In 18 minutes, Parker shot 11-of-14 from the field for 25 points to lead his team to a 57-48 halftime lead.
On Thursday, Parker received some mild negative attention for appearing to claim that he'd invented the teardrop shot. While it turns out that those quotes were probably taken just a bit out of context, there's no question that Parker proved his sense of originality with this and-one. This is one shot he most definitely came up with all on his own.
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