NBA.com Breaks Down Blazers F LaMarcus Aldridge's Game-Winner

Jeff Case of NBA.com has some fun with Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge's game-winner against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, ranking it and supplying breakdowns in various categories to give it an "Horry Scale" rating. Aldridge received four out of five.

For those that are new around these parts, the Horry scale examines a game-winning buzzer-beater (GWBB) in the categories of difficulty, game situation (was the team tied or behind at the time?), importance (playoff game or garden-variety Kings-Pistons game?) and celebration (is it over the top or too chill? Just the right panache or needs more sauce?). Then we give it an overall grade on a scale of 1-5 Robert Horrys, the patron saint of last-second daggers.

...

4 Horrys. Tough shot for most players, but pretty routine for Aldridge. This one kind of ranks up there in importance with the J.R. Smith shot against the Bobcats earlier this season in that the defense gave a standout player just the kind of shot he wanted. Overall, it should be three stars. But I give it that extra star bump for the clutch-iness of Aldridge in not just nailing the game-winner, but also the game-tying shot, too. If that's not the sort of thing Horry used to do, I don't know what is.

Hat tip: @EricHulen

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter