Down 20, up one: Seoul SK's dramatic 86–85 comeback

Can a team trailing by 19 after one quarter still win? SK wrote the answer over forty minutes. The scoreboard told two very different stories.

At Seoul's Jamsil Students' Gymnasium on Oct. 24, SK trailed LG 13–32 after the first quarter and by as many as 20 early in the second. SK cut the gap to 43–51 at halftime, moved ahead 66–65 late in the third, and then, trailing 83–85, took the lead on Kim Nak-hyeon's three-pointer. SK stopped LG's final possession with 9.6 seconds on the clock.

The intriguing part isn't just the phrase '20-point comeback.' SK had to rebuild the game possession by possession. What mattered most was not the old deficit but what the team did in the final 9.6 seconds.

Contemporaneous match reports document the scoring swings and decisive possession. No fan comments were independently checked, so none are invented. Any sense of disbelief here is the editor's interpretation, not an attributed quote.

SK began its domestic league schedule later than some other clubs due to its Basketball Champions League Asia commitments. Its early 2–1 record thus needs context before comparison with teams that have played more games.

Sports Kyunghyang's Oct. 24, 4:22 p.m. report records SK 86–85 LG, a 13–32 first quarter, 43–51 halftime and a 66–65 SK lead late in the third. Kim Nak-hyeon scored 19; Jameel Warney had 12 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists; Isaiah Hicks added 15 points and 10 rebounds. SK moved to 2–1.

The next question is whether SK can sustain its late-game concentration. One remarkable result does not guarantee a title or a streak; LG will also have to study how its early lead disappeared.