The dribble sets the shot, and the shot clock is on screen

Four changes reach the replay together. The dribble is now part of the game itself rather than something the replay draws on top of it, and that changes when a driver can shoot. The shot clock is on screen. A new view shows how far each player can reach. And a fumbled catch now looks like one.

The dribble belongs to the game

Until now the game decided where a player ran and when they shot, and the replay added a bouncing ball afterwards to make it look right. Now the game decides every bounce: when the ball leaves the hand, when it meets the floor and when it comes back. The replay draws those bounces, and the stream plays its bounce sound at each one, so what you see and hear is the dribble the game played.

That matters most at the end of a drive. A player can only pick the ball up when it comes back to their hand, so the dribble decides when the gather comes. A driver now gathers on the first bounce back in their hand once they start to slow down, the way a player picks up the ball in stride before going up. From the gather to the release now takes about a second in the middle of the range, close to what real players take at the rim. That time now varies from shot to shot about three times as much as before, though still less than real players' does.

The shot clock

The shot clock now runs beside the score, on the site's replay and on the stream. It shows the time the game itself recorded at each decision, counting down between them, and it goes back up only when the game reset it, as after an offensive rebound. The page never keeps a count of its own.

How far each player can reach

A long arm and a tall body look much alike from the stands, yet reach decides who blocks a shot and who gets a hand to a rebound. Press R, or the Reach button, and the replay draws two rings around every player: one at the height they reach standing, one at the top of their jump, each as wide as half their wingspan. Each comes from that player's own body. On a block seen from the front, the blocker's ring sits at the height of the ball.

A fumble you can see

When a catch was fumbled, the receiver used to go on holding the ball until the whistle. Now the ball comes loose from their hands at the catch and drops to the floor.