Max Strus is one of the most gifted shooters in basketball, and had already splashed six three-pointers once Luka Doncic found PJ Washington for a go-ahead finish at the rim with just 2.6 seconds remaining. Can you really blame the Dallas Mavericks for not forcing the ball out of his hands just before time expired, though? After all, the Cleveland Cavaliers wing was forced to pull up from beyond halfcourt because his team had no timeouts.
But on a night when Strus had a scorching hot hand in the fourth quarter, it’s safe to say Dallas would’ve rather anyone else on the Cavs attempt his epic-game-winner. Strus sent his team to stunning last-second victory on Tuesday when his nearly 60-foot heave splashed through the net at the final buzzer, resulting in a wild 121-119 Cleveland win.
Strus was awesome for the Cavs at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, dropping 21 points, grabbing four boards, dishing out four assists and blocking two shots in 25 minutes of action. All of his points came from beyond the arc, where Strus shot 7-of-10—including an insane crunch-time stretch in which he hit triples on four consecutive possessions, spearheading Cleveland’s long-shot comeback bid after the Mavs went up by double-digits.
Donovan Mitchell scored a team-high 31 points on 11-of-20 overall and 7-of-10 from deep for Cleveland, adding seven boards and six assists to help offset another utterly dominant performance from Doncic. Dallas’ superstar put up 45 points, nine rebounds and 14 assists on hyper-efficient 17-of-29 shooting, nearly leading his revamped team to an impressive road win over an Eastern Conference contender.
Max Strus, obviously, had other plans for the game’s outcome, giving the Cavs their second straight win after consecutive losses coming out of the All-Star break.