Vipers Crowned NBA D-League Champions After Winder's Buzzer Beater
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Craig Winder has been a member of the Vipers roster since the 2007-08 season, their first in the NBA D-League. The 26-year-old was chosen by the team in the eighth round (108th overall) of the draft, and since then has appeared in 118 games, mostly as a reserve. Of those hundred-plus games, there’s none he’ll remember more than Game 2 of the Finals, which took place Tuesday at State Farm Arena in Hidalgo, Texas.
With just eight seconds left, and the score tied at 91, Vipers guard Will Conroy inbounded the ball to Antonio Anderson, who found Winder outside the arc. Winder, with Tulsa 66ers forward Deron Washington lunging towards him, drained the bucket off the glass at the buzzer (WATCH THE VIDEO) to put Rio Grande Valley on top of the 66ers, 94-91. This is the first championship in franchise history for the Vipers, who were also in the midst of their first-ever playoff run.
“The crazy thing is over the past couple of weeks we’ve been teasing him that he don’t have any ice water in his veins,” Vipers guard Will Conroy said.
Conroy explained that the friendly hazing started after Winder had a chance to put the Vipers ahead of the Austin Toros in Game 1 of the NBA D-League semifinals. In that matchup, Winder missed a pull-up jumper with 28 seconds left. He didn’t just miss, according to Conroy, he airballed it.
“We’ve been messing with him since then, and for him to make the game-winner speaks a lot about his confidence and his ability to make plays,” Conroy said. “That was huge.”
“It meant a lot,” said Winder, who finished with 16 points off the bench. “We’ve been through ups and downs. I had a chance to come back and be a big part of this and I’m glad I did.”
Winder said Vipers head coach Chris Finch drew the play up for Antonio Anderson to get the ball to NBA D-League MVP Mike Harris in the corner. If Harris had trouble finding a driving lane, he’d be able to dish the ball to someone else. He did just that, and Winder was ready for it.
Finch said the play he drew up started with getting the ball into Anderson’s hands. He knew his rookie forward would make the smart decision whether to keep the ball or pass it off to one of his teammates. In the end, Finch and Anderson both made the right call.
As for Winder, who averaged a career-high 14.3 points this season, Finch believes he made an equally wise decision when adding him to the roster this year.
“People said he was kind of an end-of-the-bench type player, but we knew he was an impact player,” Finch said. “He was an off-the-bench, high energy game changer. That’s the way he’s played for us all season.”
Winder is joined by forward Stanley Asumnu as the longest-tenured Rio Grande Valley member. Asumnu also joined the Vipers in 2007-09 and has appeared in 125 games since then, seven more than Winder.
Game 2 wasn’t just close at the end, it was a back and forth battle the entire 60 minutes. Heading into their locker rooms at the end of the first half, Tulsa held the 43-42 advantage. This postseason, the Vipers were 0-2 when trailing at the half. However, with a 20-4 record at home this year, there was no easy path to the finish for the 66ers.
For most of the third and forth quarters, the 66ers stayed ahead, leading by as many as six at one point. At just under a minute, and the scoreboard reading 91-89, Anderson found a wide-open Harris underneath the Vipers basket on a fast break to tie the game. That capped off a 7-2 run for Rio Grande Valley. Fifty-six seconds later, they were champions.
Harris ended the night with a game-high 26 points and 16 rebounds, while Conroy added 13 points. Larry Owens led the 66ers with 25 points, while Washington put up 16. Their teammates, JuJuan Smith (13 points) and Latavious Williams (14 points, 8 rebounds), were strong contributors off the bench for Tulsa.
The Vipers, who are owned locally but operated by the Houston Rockets organization, had a sellout crowd of 6,198 at Tuesday’s game, their largest single-game number ever. Only a Rockets-Boston Celtics preseason game on Oct. 7, 2009, drew more (6,300) people to State Farm Arena. Also in attendance Tuesday was several members of the Rockets front office, including general manager Daryl Morey, who came away impressed.
“Our guys fought hard; the coaching was great,” Morey said. “We can’t wait to get the second one here and the first one for the Houston Rockets.”
The Vipers, whose road to the Finals came through Reno and Austin, grabbed Game 1 of the series in Sunday’s 124-107 win in Tulsa. Conroy (14 points, 16 rebounds, 11 assists) posted a triple-double, while Harris added 24 points in only 21 minutes of action. For Tulsa, Owens (21 points) and Wink Adams (16 points) were its top scorers.
“I don’t think you could have written a story any better,” Conroy said. “For our last series, I think this will help the D-League a lot. This is exciting.
“Anybody who’s a basketball fan would have loved that.”
It was the perfect storybook ending to the Vipers' season, with the closing chapter written by one Craig Winder.
