He didn’t mean to do it, right? After going behind his back to avoid a defender and get into the lane, Wizards wing — and hopeful Paul Pierce stretch-four stand-in — Otto Porter ran right into another Paschoalotto/Bauru defender.
In case you didn’t know (you didn’t), Bauru is a little-known Brazilian basketball team, and it was obvious during Washington’s 134-100 blowout. Washington wasn’t the only team lapping up the sub-par competition as part of the NBA’s Global Games initiative during preseason action.
Back to the play above. Because Porter lost his handle a bit with the behind-the-back dribble he used to avoid the first Bauru defender, he was forced to go low with the spider dribble, and ended up bouncing it right between the second defender’s legs as he lunged towards the rim and flipped the ball up. It dropped through, cementing a remarkable play.
While Drew Gooden’s reaction made it seem like Porter just switched hands midair like MJ in ’91, the nut meg wasn’t on purpose — however amazing it might’ve seemed.
Porter was just trying to corral the ball and happened to find the defender’s five-hole. We’re starting to think the Global Games are simply an excuse for NBA basketball to flex their ethnocentric muscles on the International scene.
Bauru had no sense being on the court with a team who made the Eastern Conference Semifinals the last two seasons.
