Particularly if your season is on the line.
And that is exactly the situation the Otago Nuggets found themselves in on a cold, damp Saturday evening at the Edgar Centre.
A modest crowd of 1151 had shown up to watch the Nuggets snap a four-game losing streak in the National Basketball League with an important 91-87 win over the Taranaki Airs.
Perhaps some fans had made the ill-fated decision to stay home and watch the one-sided Super Rugby Pacific final.
Boy, did they miss out.
With 1 min 51 sec on the clock, the Nuggets and Airs were locked in a tense battle at 78-78.
Here is how those 111 seconds played out.
Nuggets small forward Buay Tuach (18 points, eight rebounds), who got himself into foul trouble and spent long stretches on the bench, took the ball into contact and forced it through the hoop.
But tricky Airs guard Aaron Cook jun (28 points) hit a clutch fadeaway jumper.
The American was having a ding-dong battle with the Nuggets’ Canadian point guard, Alain Louis. They had the odd exchange that looked, well, more cheeky than polite. Perhaps they were discussing whether Trump’s America would eventually annex Canada.
It was all level again until Tuach landed a corner three.
One minute remaining now with the Nuggets up by one.
Airs forward James Moors (14 points, nine rebounds) pushed his shot long.
Craig Moller grabbed the rebound for the Nuggets and was immediately fouled.
He was the wrong man to foul. The Australian forward (28 points, 10 rebounds) is money from the stripe and he iced both free throws.
Cook made a driving lay-up to cut the lead to three.
Nuggets captain Ethan Rusbatch (16 points) was fouled and drilled both free throws to take the lead back to five.
But Cook was cooking. He landed another bucket with a fadeaway.
Moller added two more from the stripe. Told you he was money.
The Nuggets were up five with 10.4sec to play.
This one was done. Or was it?
Cook dropped in a three. Then he gave his old mate, Louis, some lip.
They fouled again quickly. The Nuggets had inbounded it to Moller and he stuck both free throws.
Now it was done.
What a game.
Nuggets coach Jeff Sparrow was rapt with what he described as a hard-fought win.
‘‘Craig is a good foul shooter,’’ he said.
‘‘It is nice when your big man can finish it on the line.’’
It was a clinical finish from the Nuggets. But they led by nearly 20 midway through the second period and let the Airs back into the contest.
‘‘You are never going to play a perfect 40 minutes, but I thought we were unbelievable. And unbelievably resilient, knowing our backs were against the wall in the playoff hunt.’’
The win will have helped erase some memories of the rancid effort against the Canterbury Rams a week earlier. They were crushed 93-58 and the reviews were fairly scathing.
But they have shown character to bounce back. The win lifts them to 6-7.
The Auckland Tuatara beat the struggling Hawke’s Bay Hawks 85-74 in Auckland on Saturday night to move to 12 wins.
The Nuggets beat the Airs 38-28 in the Rapid League match. Zach McKenzie poured in 22 points.
NBL
The scores
Otago Nuggets 91
Craig Moller 28, Buay Tuach 18
Taranaki Airs 87
Aaron Cook jun 28, James Moors 14
Quarter scores: Nuggets 29-20,
Nuggets 49-40, Airs 61-63.
