TORONTO — The end of a close game can fry the decision-making of even a savvy NBA player.

This is Immanuel Quickley’s sixth season in the NBA. He is not a pure point guard, but he has a pretty nifty 3.7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio this year. You can trust him, more or less.

However, with 11 seconds left in his Toronto Raptors’ 117-116 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night, Quickley messed up. With the Raptors down by just two points, he received the ball on the inbound pass, dribbled toward the corner and took a very difficult fadeaway jumper over VJ Edgecombe. It was an airball, and the Raptors kept possession only after a review confirmed the ball had grazed Philadelphia big man Adem Bona’s hand before going out of bounds. Regardless, that shot isn’t a go-to look for Quickley, and there was enough time to regroup. It was a clear mistake.

By all rights, rookie Collin Murray-Boyles should have felt rushed moments later. This was just his 33rd career NBA game, and he has started playing in late-game situations only recently. He was not the first (or second) option on the out-of-bounds play that followed the Quickley miss. The pass came with 5.5 seconds left, and he had to spin around to corral the ball before taking a dribble into the paint. Time was ticking. “Shoot” should have been blinking in giant lights in his brain.

Instead, he dropped the ball off to 6-foot guard Jamal Shead, who was a few feet away from Philadelphia’s rim protector, the 6-foot-10 Bona. He kind of skipped as he got off a shot. It hit.

WE’RE HEADING TO OT 🔥 https://t.co/fGu2PQyaKq pic.twitter.com/e4CBx3tpee

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 12, 2026

“All of us were surprised,” said Shead, whose “five-foot layup” was more of a push shot. “I think (Murray-Boyles) was looking at the rim and at the last second he’s like, ‘Oh my God, Jamal is right there.’ And then their big is standing next to me. But it was so surprising that it really surprised everybody.”

“That’s a great question,” Murray-Boyles said when asked why he passed. “It just felt a little awkward. Yeah, felt awkward. ‘Mal has great touch.”

In a game full of unlikely and odd moments, Murray-Boyles’ pass was the one that felt elevated. Rookies aren’t supposed to be that composed, and a 6-foot-7 rookie who is built like a chiseled cube and played centre in college definitely is not supposed to be calm enough to do anything but get the ball toward the rim in that situation.

That is the secret sauce of Murray-Boyles’ game, though. While he appears to resemble the great “undersized” rebounders of our time, he brings elite vision to the floor. It is probably fair to worry that he passes up potential paint shots too often.

“My reaction? I was looking like, ‘Who was he passing it to?’” said fellow Raptors rookie Alijah Martin, on the floor because of a spate of injuries to Raptors wings.

“He’s not shying away from any type of contact,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković added. “He’s another guy who only cares about how to help the team, and he’s not upset (if) he is gonna score or not? And that’s why you see him (have) games with 17 points, and then you see him (have) big games with four points, and in both of those games, he really affects the team with how he plays.”

Murray-Boyles finished with 17 points, including two massive dunks in overtime, 15 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks. His pass was a moment of grand design in a game that spent most of the evening off the rails, especially at the end.

CMB
17 PTS
15 REB

SHEAD
22 PTS
6 AST https://t.co/boo7fLO1mY pic.twitter.com/rucnpheQtn

— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) January 12, 2026

• The final 13 seconds of regulation featured three challenges, all of which went Toronto’s way. Without them, the Raptors would not have been able to erase a four-point deficit with 19.6 seconds remaining, with a pull-up 3 from Tyrese Maxey giving Philadelphia that advantage.

• Along with Martin and Murray-Boyles, Edgecombe was the third rookie to play the closing minutes of the game. Edgecombe dropped in a 30-foot 3 over Martin at the end of a possession that seemed to be going nowhere to tie the game with 15.6 seconds left in overtime.

in the CLUTCH! 🥶 pic.twitter.com/6CBInLL3Wm

— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) January 12, 2026

• Scottie Barnes had a dramatic bucket called off in the final minute of both regulation and overtime. With 37.4 seconds left in regulation, Barnes appeared to give the Raptors the lead with a floater, also drawing a foul call, but one of the officials rightly called Barnes for travelling. That set up Maxey to put the 76ers up by four.

• In overtime, Barnes received the inbound pass, drove right at Kelly Oubre and hit an off-balance shot as he stumbled out of bounds. The basket was waived, with the officials ruling Oubre’s foul had happened before Barnes collected for the shot. Since it was Philadelphia’s second foul in the final two minutes, Barnes got to shoot free throws with less than a second remaining. He made the first to give the Raptors the lead. With Philadelphia still having a timeout, he missed the second on purpose, and Murray-Boyles batted the ball away off the rim to run out the clock.

• Martin, who went to the Final Four with both Florida Atlantic and Florida, was playing in just his sixth NBA game, with this being the second time he’s played meaningful minutes. The second-round pick on a two-way contract was only playing because of injuries to Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett and Ja’Kobe Walter ahead of him, as well as ineffectiveness from Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji. He has been one of the best players in the G League this season. At 6-foot-2, Martin was essentially playing as the Raptors’ small forward in clutch time.

He finished with nine points and eight rebounds, but it was his four steals and two blocks that truly helped the Raptors win a game in which they shot 5 for 32 from 3. As pointed out by basketball journalist and statistician Keerthika Uthayakumar, the Raptors are now 7-0 this season when shooting worse than 26 percent from 3, and are 17-16 in all other games.

“(Martin) don’t back down from nobody. That’s that Mississippi (in him) — always been a dog,” Murray-Boyles said. “Never backing down from anybody. You saw him barking at Tyrese with 35 seconds left. That’s bold. That’s bold. That’s who he is. That’s his character. That’s what makes him him.”

As for what makes Murray-Boyles? Well, it is complex, not to mention unusual. He spent some extra time with the team’s medical staff after his 42 minutes. How did it feel?

“Holy smokes,” said Murray-Boyles, pronouncing the first word as if it were two. “Yeah, of course (playing so much was) different. That was intense.”