The Washington Wizards seemed poised to do the impossible. After being down 16 points late in the third quarter to the Detroit Pistons, the Wiz were poised to steal victory from the jaws of defeat. They had the ball with 12 seconds to go and were down 96-95.
The ball wound up in the hands of Trevor Ariza who launched it as the buzzer sounded -- nothing but net.
The Wizards .... lose? Actually, yes. Nothing but net was all too accurate as Ariza's shot came up short and grazed the net on its decent. From the television camera view it looked like it went in and it certainly must have looked like it went in from the nosebleed section where they station the media at the Verizon Center.
The Washington broadcast team of Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier lost their collective minds at the improbable comeback.
"Dagger!" screamed Buckhantz as Chenier just laughed in joy and amazement.
But once the adrenaline wore off were puzzled why no one else seemed as excited as they were. It wasn't until a replay that they saw the shot fell short. The best Buckhantz could manage was a meek, "the dagger has been retracted."
Indeed.