SAN ANTONIO — Manu Ginobili was shuffling his feet frantically along the sideline, waving his arms maniacally, as if he were staging some sort of interpretive dance.
Dion Waiters was inches away from him, trying to inbound the ball, as his team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, held a 1-point lead over the San Antonio Spurs with 13.5 seconds remaining to play before a loud and anxious capacity crowd at AT&T Center.
What happened next was perhaps the most remarkable scene of the 2016 N.B.A. playoffs.
Desperate to find an open teammate and feeling the pressure of a suffocating defense, Waiters rammed his right elbow into Ginobili’s chest to create some much-needed space.