Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
With the pivotal Game 3 in the semifinals on the line, Marcio Lassiter just wanted to give San Miguel Beer a chance to win by attempting a shot before the buzzer sounded.
“I looked up and I saw we had about six seconds left so I knew I had some time to kind of get up for a shot,” the San Miguel Beer swingman recalled on Wednesday night.
“From there, I just wanted to make sure that we can get a good shot off. I was just creating enough separation to get a good shot off.”
READ: Lassiter nails clutch 3 as Beermen slip past Hotshots
It wasn’t exactly a good shot with a defender in Star’s Justin Melton hounding him in the left wing, but it beat the clock, hit the glass and went through the nylon.
“One of the biggest shots of my career and I just wanted to be ready. It’s not over until the last second and I always play up to the last second. I threw it up and it looked good.”
Lassiter said he intended the bank shot and stressed his clutch basket was no fluke.
“I called bank. Yeah, I meant to do that,” he said with a big grin after scoring 12 points in a 111-110 win that moved the Beermen on the cusp of another finals appearance.
READ: Lassiter heats up as San Miguel cruises to PBA semis
The 30-year-old Lassiter, one of the deadliest shooters in the PBA today, also shared a similar moment last year in Game 2 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup semis against Rain or Shine where he banked in a triple at the buzzer only to find out upon review that his shot failed to beat the clock.
“You know, it was kinda cool to be in that moment and I don’t know if you guys remember, last year I also had a buzzer-beater so you know, this is not like a fluke shot,” he said.
“It was a Game 2 vs. Rain or Shine, it was just like a split second [late] like a 0.1 tenth of a second I didn’t get it off. I’m just kinda glad that this one went in and it just seems like God blessed me today.”