The Phoenix Suns lost a nail-biter to the Denver Nuggets in overtime on Christmas Day, and the contest involved a controversial offensive foul reversal late in the game that did not sit well with Suns' shooting guard Landry Shamet.
Late in the extra frame, Nuggets' Aaron Gordon led a two-on-one fast break with Nikola Jokic. Instead of passing the ball to the reigning MVP, Gordon took matters into his own hands, posterizing Shamet with a ridiculous high-flying dunk.
aaron. gordon. pic.twitter.com/d4DCiCCF6n
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) December 26, 2022
Shamet stood in to take the potential charge, and was originally successful after the referee waved off the basket, calling Gordon for an offensive foul. But after the play was reviewed to see if Shamet was standing inside the restricted circle, they determined that he wasn't in a legal guarding position, awarding Gordon the two points plus a free throw to boot.
Dunk of the year?
The Nuggets went onto win the game 128-125, thanks in large part to Gordon's three-point play stemming from the thunderous slam dunk. Although it was objectively one of the best in-game dunks this season, Shamet was not impressed with the foul reversal.
“It just sucks that bang-bang plays can be reviewed,” Shamet said to reporters after the game. “You draw a charge in the flow of a game, go back and look at it, it's easy when you slow it down…that's basketball. It happens.”
That's a pretty reasonable answer from Shamet, who sacrificed the body in a big way to draw the charge in a difficult two-on-one situation. It was also one of the better games the 25 year-old has played; he put up a career high 31 points in the loss.
“We're just trying to control what we can,” Landry Shamet explained on Sunday night.
The 19-15 Phoenix Suns fall to fourth place in a competitive Western Conference with the loss, while the 21-11 Denver Nuggets continue to rise, finding themselves in the top spot in the conference after the Christmas Day win.
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