Learn Chinese Words for Buzzer Beater

News Flashback

Are you watching the 2014 NBA playoff season? It’s just an unbelievable shot made by Vince Carter! With only 1.7 seconds left, Carter took an inbound pass from Jose Calderon from downtown in the left corner. After a quick pump fake got Manu Ginobili in the air, Carter released the ball just in time and closed the game with a Buzzer Beater.

"To be honest, I thought about that as we were coming out of timeout," Carter said after the game when he recalled the missed shot in 2001. "'Hey, let's make this one.' In my mind I was ready for it. I had already made the shot before the play happened if I got the ball."

Back to the amazing night in DALLAS, in game 3 of the NBA playoff season, Dallas Mavericks versus San Antonio Spurs, Carter Beat the Buzzer with a three-point play to give the Dallas Mavericks a 109-108 victory over the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs. That Buzzer Beater was so amazing that Mavericks owner Mark Cuban also joined the celebration on the court before the automatic review confirmed the obvious: The shot was good.

Chinese Words and Phrases

In Chinese, the word for Buzzer Beater is 绝杀(jué shā). Literally, 绝杀 means “the final kill”. The Chinese character 绝 doesn’t have a particular meaning when it appears alone, so it is often used with other Chinese words. In this case，绝 has a meaning of “being final or end”. 杀 means "to kill". 杀 may look a little frightening because of its original meaning, but in this case as used with 绝, it means "to beat somebody“ in a game.

绝杀 can be a verb in Chinese. In this game, Carter beat the Spurs on the buzzer. We can say “在这场比赛中，卡特绝杀了马刺(zài zhèchǎng bǐsài zhōng, kǎtè juéshā le mǎcì)” in Chinese.

绝杀 can also be a noun and it is often used with the verb 投中(tóu zhōng) which means “made the shot”. For the same sentence ” In this game, Carter beat the Spurs on the buzzer”, we can also say”在这场比赛中，卡特投中了绝杀(zài zhèchǎng bǐsài zhōng, kǎtè tóuzhōng le juéshā)”.