The Suns may have lost Game 3 to the Bucks Sunday night, but Cam Johnson still found a way to steal the show.
With his team trailing 69-56 in the third quarter, the Suns forward inbounded the basketball and quickly got it back. Johnson garnered some momentum and picked up a full head of steam, setting his mind on the basket, until PJ Tucker got in his way. Johnson was not fazed, immediately going up and over the helpless defender, securing two points, a free throw and a dunk for the ages.
The basketball world responded.
“Dunk of the playoffs,” one fan wrote. “Possibly the year.”
“Let’s appreciate how high Cam Johnson got off the ground on this,” Suns beat writer Evan Sidery wrote. “These athletic flashes from Johnson are simply jaw-dropping.”
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer challenged the blocking foul, but referee Scott Foster preserved the play in the history books and upheld the call.
“That’s probably the most time I’ve ever had to think about what I might do with the ball in my hands in a long time,” Johnson said of the play. “And just take advantage of opportunities, really. I saw nobody really stepped up until [Tucker] did at the end, but just hoping they wouldn’t overturn it and call it a charge.”
Johnson, a second-year player out of the University of North Carolina, has given the Suns a deadly weapon off the bench this postseason, averaging 10.8 points per game and shooting 52.9 percent from three.
While the 25-year-old made the headlines Sunday, the Bucks got the last laugh, cutting their series deficit in half with a 120-100 victory behind Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 41 points. Game 4 is Wednesday night at 9 p.m.