Kyrie Irving wows Mavericks with lefty hook to sink Nuggets - ESPN

DALLAS — One detail about the second game-winning buzzer-beater of Kyrie Irving's career caught the eight-time All-Star guard by surprise.

«I thought I got a little closer in the paint, but I looked at it after the game and I was pretty far out,» Irving said after swishing a contested left-handed hook to give the Dallas Mavericks a 107-105 win Sunday afternoon over the defending champion Denver Nuggets.

The exact distance of the buzzer-beater, according to Second Spectrum tracking, was 20.1 feet. That ranks as the second-longest hook shot made by any player this season, per the NBA.com play-by-play data.

«Hell of a shot by Kyrie,» said Nuggets coach Michael Malone, whose team fell to 47-21, slipping a half-game behind the Oklahoma City Thunder in the race for first place in the Western Conference. «Give him all the credit.»

The longest hook this season? That was also by Irving, when he banked one in from the top of the key in a January 3 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. That right-handed shot was actually an accident, an errant lob pass intended for center Dereck Lively II that luckily went in the hoop.

Irving credited hours in the gym working on his off hand for this spectacular game-winner, which resulted him being mobbed by his Mavericks teammates and minority owner Mark Cuban at half court. He entered the game 38-of-87 on left-handed shots this season, many of which were high degree-of-difficulty finishes in the paint. The average distance of those southpaw attempts was 4.7 feet with the longest from 15 feet, according to Second Spectrum tracking.

But if felt natural for Irving, who had 24 points and nine assists in the win, to launch a lefty hook after curling off a baseline screen and catching the inbounds pass