The ball flew out of his hands, straight past the head of Sam Timmins and over the baseline.
The import guard, sensational in his first game a week ago, had wanted the centre to roll further into the hole.
His frustration was evident as the pair had a somewhat extended interaction afterwards, before shaking hands.
It was a moment that summed up the Otago Nuggets’ night.
They struggled to get going on a cold Dunedin evening and, despite a furious fourth quarter comeback, were beaten 88-77 by the Canterbury Rams.
The Rams backcourt was superb defensively, clamping the Otago guards and preventing them gaining any penetration.
As a result, the Nuggets struggled to get anything going offensively — notably shooting just three-of-29 from the three-point line.
Only during a 16-2 run to end the first quarter did they genuinely look dangerous through the first three quarters.
At the other end the Rams methodically built their lead, pulling ahead in a 30-13 second quarter.
That flipped in the fourth quarter, as the Nuggets began getting stops and eating into the lead.
But they had left themselves too much to do.
Rams duo Sunday Dech and Max Darling had 23 and 19 points respectively.
Young guard Walter Brown was also exceptional and finished with an efficient 14 points, increasingly making his snub from the under-19 national tournament team unfathomable.
Keith Williams had 22 points for the Nuggets, although more than once missed box-outs that led to points at the other end.
Boyd had a tough night, shooting a horrid five-of-21, and 0-of-10 from the three-point line, for his 13 points.
"It was a night where we didn’t shoot the ball well," coach Brent Matehaere said.
"Thirty-six percent from the floor, 10% from the three-point line. I think Todd had two early and Keith had one late.
"We just weren’t really threatening at all from the perimeter and that’s really frustrating.
"Tray didn’t get going in this game like he wanted to. He’s going to look back on this and be disappointed.
"The effort was there. The boys showed a lot of heart to get back to within six.
"The shooting just didn’t work for us. It’s one of those nights we’ll look at things and think if we could only be a bit more polished."
The Nuggets started slowly and trailed 14-7 before back-to-back three-pointers from Todd Withers ignited them.
It started a 16-2 run, as they lifted their intensity on defence and got to the hoop.
That gave them a 23-16 lead at the quarter break.
It proved to be a blip, though.
The Nuggets offence stalled, struggling to generate anything, aside from a handful of Timmins looks at the hoop.
At the other end the Rams began doing their damage.
Brown grabbed an offensive rebound and finished before hitting from deep to tie the score at 23-23 shortly after.
From there Matthew Moyer found his range, before Darling took over to close out the quarter.
The Nuggets trailed 46-36 at halftime, a margin which became 16 at the end of the third quarter.
They rallied in the fourth quarter and reduced the deficit to six on a Withers shot with less than three minutes to play.
NBL
The scores
Canterbury Rams 88
Sunday Dech 23, Max Darling 19
Otago Nuggets 77
Keith Williams 22, Sam Timmins 14
