While You Weren't Watching: Rube Goldberg plays, heat checks and more
The NBA regular season operates at a frenzied pace, with one game and storyline bleeding into the next. Every Friday here at SI.com, we'll slow things down in While You Weren't Watching—a spotlight on the little moments in the week's slate that might otherwise get lost in the shuffle. Here's what you may have missed...
• A Rube Goldberg machine. I can only assume this defense-to-offense transition went perfectly according to plan for the Bucks:
• MORE NBA: Blazers prepare for life without Wes Matthews
• A bail-out.Jeremy Lin drove against the Hornets with the intention to create contact, but instead ended up doing the mid-air limbo while tossing this improbable bounce pass back to Carlos Boozer:
• Spunk. It’s always nice to see some nerve from George Hill, who had designs to eradicate Andrea Bargnani from the face of the earth with this near-dunk:
• Salesmanship. Not only does Amar’e Stoudemire pull in a rebound from the floor on this sequence while in traffic, but he gives Tyreke Evans the business before dishing the ball off to J.J. Barea. It’s the basketball equivalent of a matador flashing his cape; with just the right amount of hesitation, Evans lunges headfirst toward the ball and winds up duped.
• A hot spell. Every Lou Williams shot attempt may as well be a heat check, but this one – during a momentum-shifting stretch in the Raptors’ game against the Cavs – was some kind of bold:
• Herding. Most ball handlers in the NBA use their off-arm to shield the ball or create separation, but none does so quite like Evan Turner. His tactics are strangely subtle – not pushes, per se, but slight guidance at just the right time as to clear a path. Watch here as he gets by LeBron James in transition while giving him a tiny nudge to widen his lane:
• A source of confusion.LaMarcus Aldridge generates offense in a way that is impressively turnover-averse, having given the ball up on just 7.4 percent of his possessions this season – the seventh-best mark in the league. So Glen Davis, naturally, ripped Aldridge with ease this week in a way I’ve never seen the All-Star outwitted:
• Biding. Slick work from Denver’s Randy Foye on this sequence to shed Khris Middleton – a good, rangy defender – by lingering just a moment in his shooting form.
• Contraband. Basketball coaches everywhere insisted on the destruction of this game tape, given that LeBron James convinced many more players (without his hangtime) that jump passing is a perfectly acceptable means of shot creation:
• Flash for its own sake. This week in completely unnecessary behind-the-back passing: Pacers forward Damjan Rudez with the rare behind-the-back post feed!
