We’re about midway through the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ blowout victory over the Spurs (note: New York has swept their season series with San Antonio for the first time in a decade), and Pablo Prigioni is navigating a screen-and-roll with Amare Stoudemire. Having become caught up in the action happening around the basketball, Spurs rookie Nando De Colo loses sight of his man, JR Smith, who has spent the possession hanging out in the corner. Predictably, JR uses this opportunity to make a backdoor cut to the basket. Prigioni sees him, hastily delivers the ball, and De Colo’s mistake costs the Spurs two points.
Pretty routine play, save for the finish. That part was anything but routine, mostly because Pablo Prigioni and JR Smith weren’t exactly on the same page.
Bad passes really do make for the best alley-oops. In this case, I guess the pass wasn’t even bad… it just wasn’t the one that JR Smith wanted. No matter; Smith made the adjustment with more than enough ease to opt for a reverse dunk on the fly.
Can’t honestly say I’d ever seen a pass that wasn’t even intended to be an alley-oop get turned into an alley-oop. To jump that high, reach that low, and time a reverse alley-oop slam in one fluid motion… this was pretty damn impressive, even on JR Smith’s standards.
