Memorial Day Miracle vs. Horry’s 3: Which is the biggest Spurs shot ever?

Shot Difficulty

In comparing the difficulty of these two historic shots, it’s not really a contest. Robert Horry’s three was fairly straightforward and wide open thanks to a costly gamble by Rasheed Wallace and was only contested at the last second by Tayshaun Prince.

The play was drawn up seemingly for a deep post-up for Tim Duncan against Ben Wallace but upon Rasheed’s ill-advised double-team, Manu Ginobili made an intelligent play on the fly to set up Horry’s dagger.

The result was a Detroit Pistons squad leaving a guy open that already had an established career of being one of the most clutch players of all time.

Sean Elliott’s big shot, however, was far from simple. The catch alone was difficult, as Stacey Augmon was draped all over him until his momentum carried him out of bounds. Then, of course, there’s the famous tightrope act he did with both feet before getting the shot off.

Although there’s nothing he could have done differently this time around, Rasheed Wallace was involved on the wrong side of a clutch Spurs shot once again, as his outstretched fingers narrowly missed the shot that would become the Memorial Day Miracle.

So much could have gone wrong in this play starting with Augmon stealing the ball. Then, the way Elliott controlled his feet along the baseline was remarkable. If he was half of a shoe size bigger, that’s a turnover.

The contest by Sheed is also impressive when you consider where he jumped from. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop the inevitable sixth three from Elliott.

Advantage: Sean Elliott