BOSTON — Resolved: The Derrick White/Jaylen Brown block on P.J. Washington in Sunday’s Game 2 of the Celtics-Mavericks NBA Finals was one of the greatest blocks in league playoff history.
Affirmative: The White/Brown block, with 51 seconds left, prevented what looked like a sure transition basket by Washington that would have brought Dallas within three points, continuing a Mavericks rally from 14 down with 3:32 left in the game. It was an incredible hustle play by both White and Brown, each of whom was trailing the play when Kyrie Irving came across midcourt with the ball. Both sprinted back to put themselves in position to challenge the shot. Jrue Holiday caught the carom and went the other way; Brown’s driving layup with 30 seconds left put his Boston Celtics up seven, sealing the game.
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“It was sick,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said of the block.
“Just sprinting back, trying to make a play,” White said after the 105-98 win in Game 2 of the finals. “Obviously, they were making a little run there, and whatever means necessary to sprint back and meet him at the rim.”
Negative:First, and foremost, uh… this:
Brown, rather obviously, pushed Washington in the back as he started his jump, knocking him off balance. White got some of Washington’s hand as he made the block, but that wasn’t the egregious contact that Brown made.
“Kyrie threw a pass to me, fast break,” Washington told The Athletic postgame. “Obviously I was running, trying to get a dunk. I thought I got pushed in the back. But it is what it is. Next play, and next game. …I’m not jumping that far into the stands (without being pushed). I tried to dunk the ball. I felt I got pushed, but they didn’t call anything.”
As there was an obvious blown call there, it’s impossible to place White’s block among the very best ever in postseason history. Top 10? One can resolve to make such an argument. But his block is not in the top five.
These are:
5. Hakeem Olajuwon blocks John Starks, Game 6, 1994 finals (Watch)
The Houston Rockets trailed the New York Knicks 3-2 in the 1994 finals. Game 5, played two days earlier, had been marked by an electric New York win over Houston in Madison Square Garden, along with … something else going on at the same time.
But the Rockets’ season was on the line. Leading 86-84 with 5.5 seconds left, the Rockets had to get a defensive stop to force a Game 7 at The Summit. The ball, almost certainly, was going to go to Knicks guard John Starks, who’d scored 27 points on 9-of-17 shooting.
Off the inbounds, Knicks center Patrick Ewing screened Rockets guard Vernon Maxwell, giving Starks a sliver of daylight on the left wing. He opted to go for the win, and the ring, dribbling a half-step past Olajuwon, and rising up for a 3-pointer. But Olajuwon, a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year and the league’s all-time leader in blocked shots, closed Starks’ airspace in a nanosecond, rising to jump with Starks, deflecting the ball as it left Starks’ hand. The shot fell well short, and the Rockets held on for the win. Three days later, they beat the Knicks 90-84 in Game 7 to win the first of their back-to-back NBA titles.
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4. Tayshaun Prince runs down Reggie Miller, Game 2, 2004 Eastern Conference finals (Watch)
Months before the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers took part in the NBA’s modern-day nadir, “The Malice at the Palace,” the two Central Division foes slugged it out over seven games in the conference finals. Indiana led the series 1-0 before falling down by two points late in the fourth quarter of Game 2. Detroit’s Chauncey Billups drove the lane but was stripped by Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley. Indiana grabbed the loose ball, and Tinsley passed ahead to Miller, who had a good 10 feet on four of the five Pistons. He was heading in for what would surely be the game-tying layup.
Except the fifth Piston, Prince, was a little closer, though he was well to Miller’s left. Somehow, the 6-foot-8 Prince chased Miller down. One of the premier defensive players of his day — who, importantly, was left-handed — Prince met Miller at the basket and swatted the ball after Miller let his layup go, but before it hit the backboard. A second later, and Prince would have been called for goaltending. But the block was clean.
“The one thing I had in my mind is, I know Reggie don’t like to dunk the basketball,” Prince, now the vice president of basketball affairs for the Memphis Grizzlies, said years later. “I already got in my mind where I need to go to try and block the shot without trying to make any contact with him.”
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo stuffs Deandre Ayton, Game 4, 2021 finals (Watch)
The Milwaukee Bucks were trying to even their championship series with the Phoenix Suns at two games apiece after losing the first two finals games in Arizona. Milwaukee led 101-99 with 1:28 left after Khris Middleton’s jumper. At the other end, Phoenix ran a dribble-handoff with Ayton and star guard Devin Booker. The Bucks’ P.J. Tucker trailed the screen, giving Booker space to shoot or drive. He opted to drive. But Antetokounmpo, playing center for Milwaukee on the possession, and playing drop coverage, wasn’t out of the play. Booker tried an alley-oop to the 7-foot-1 Ayton, throwing what seemed like a perfect shovel pass skyward, which Ayton caught cleanly. He started to power through the rim.
But the 6-11 Antetokounmpo turned over his left shoulder and jumped just before Booker’s pass reached Ayton’s hands. As Ayton gathered the lob, Giannis met him at the apex, sticking his right hand between Ayton’s two hands, blocking the shot. The Bucks got the rebound and went on to win the game and the series behind their two-time league MVP and 2021 Finals MVP.
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“I thought I was going to get dunked on,” Antetokounmpo said.
2. Block, Strip, Block, Block, Game 5, 1993 Eastern Conference finals (Watch)
The Knicks and Chicago Bulls were in the midst of their blood feud, with Pat Riley having joined New York to push and harangue the franchise back to the top of the NBA heap. But the two-time defending champions, who’d knocked the Knicks out of the playoffs in each of the previous two seasons, were still in the way.
With the series tied at two, Game 5 at Madison Square Garden came down to the final seconds. Chicago led 95-94. The Knicks started motion for a pick-and-roll for Patrick Ewing and John Starks, but Starks broke the play off and rose for a jumper. He changed his mind at the last moment and threw the ball back out to Ewing at the top of the key. Ewing drove on Bulls center Stacey King, who tried to draw a charge. The contact knocked Ewing off-balance, but as he fell, he located his teammate, forward Charles Smith, in the paint and passed him the ball.
The 6-10 Smith caught the pass and went up strong. But the 6-9 Horace Grant blocked his shot at the rim. Smith grabbed the loose ball and went up again after faking Grant into the air. This time, Michael Jordan, along the baseline, stripped the ball from Smith as he started to jump. Smith again grabbed the loose ball and went up a third time. Scottie Pippen, trailing from behind, blocked Smith at the rim. Smith grabbed the loose ball and went up for a fourth time. And, again, Pippen blocked him cleanly, knocking the ball away and into the hands of Grant, who got the ball to Jordan, who fed the ball ahead to guard B.J. Armstrong, who scored the final basket at the buzzer in Chicago’s 97-94 victory. The Bulls clinched the series in Game 6 and went on to capture the first of their two threepeats.
“Ewing, for Smith … Smith, stripped, Smith, stopped, Smith stopped again by Pippen. What a play by Scottie Pippen! Final seconds, Jordan, for Armstrong — and the Bulls have defeated the Knicks,” NBC’s Hall of Fame broadcaster Marv Albert exclaimed, in one of the great play-by-play calls. For all we know, Grant, Jordan and Pippen may still be at the Garden, blocking and stripping Smith for all eternity.
1. LeBron James’ chase down of Andre Iguodala, Game 7, 2016 NBA Finals (Watch)
Game 7 of the finals, tied with two minutes left. That’s all you need to know about why James’ iconic never-give-up block of the Golden State Warriors’ Iguodala is the greatest playoff block ever. But J.R. Smith’s impact on the play is often left out of the telling (and retelling) of James’ signature play.
With the game tied 89-89, Kyrie Irving, then a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, missed a floater down the lane. Iguodala grabbed the loose ball and started what began as a 3-on-1 fast break, with Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry both running to Iguodala’s left. But the 3-on-1 soon became just a 2-on-1, as James caught and overtook Thompson in a dead sprint. Still, Iguodala and Curry were bearing down on the basket, with only Smith in the way. Iguodala threw a pass to Curry, who tossed a bounce pass right back to Iguodala. Smith, though, didn’t give a foul. He jumped with Iguodala, and extended his left hand rather than his right to try to slow down Iguodala. That forced Iguodala to have to double-clutch the ball. Instead of being able to go in for a dunk, Iguodala had to try a layup as he brought the ball back up.
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James timed his steps perfectly. It was still close, but James blocked the shot cleanly. A minute later, Irving’s clutch 3-pointer put Cleveland ahead for good, and the Cavs went on to give their city its first major sports championship in 52 years.
“All I could see is Swish — J.R.,” James said on his “Mind the Game” podcast with J.J. Redick in April. “I said, ‘I’ve got to get back.’ As soon as the ball, when the ball is missed. … I didn’t start to actually get back until I actually saw it was a miss, but in my mind, I could see the ball, feeling it was going to be a little long. I just hauled ass. … I kind of run around (Thompson). … All I’m telling myself, I’m like, ‘Swish, do not foul him.’ Any of my teammates, throughout the course of my career or throughout the course of that season, any time that you see me trailing the play, all I need is a little adjustment from the offensive player, and I promise you I’ll track it down. Do not f—ing foul.”
NARRATOR: He did not f—ing foul.
(Top photo: David Butler II / USA Today)
David Aldridge is a senior columnist for The Athletic. He has worked for nearly 30 years covering the NBA and other sports for Turner, ESPN, and the Washington Post. In 2016, he received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. He lives in Washington, D.C. Follow David on Twitter @davidaldridgedc
