The game first: a new look for the site, and a camera that stays on the shot

The site was built a piece at a time, and it showed: the game, the thing a visitor comes for, sat at the bottom of the front page, below a long schedule and a block of text. On a desktop it began about 1,300 pixels down; on a phone, about 2,500. It now begins about 420 pixels down on both, right under one line about what this is.

One look, every page

The front page now reads in the order a visitor needs it: what this is, the game, where to watch it live, today's tournament, then what is new. Every page, from the players to the blog to a single game, shares the same two typefaces, the same link style, titled sections and the same footer, which is now the only place the release and engine version appear.

A camera that stays on the shot

The replay's ball camera used to follow the ball so faithfully that a shot spent its deciding second on a ball against empty stands, with the shooter and the defender out of the picture. Now, from a little before the release until the ball lands, it looks at the point between the shooter and the rim, from behind and above, so the shooter, the defender and the rim stay in view through the flight, and only then goes back to following the ball. The hoop is drawn as a solid glass backboard with a rim and a net instead of an outline, and the first frame of a game shows all ten players standing on the floor instead of an empty court while the rest loads.

On a phone

The replay's controls now fit in one row on a phone: the camera choice and a menu button, with the other buttons behind it, so more of the court is on screen. A game opened on its own page has a way back to the front page. And when a shot is blocked, the line at the corner of the screen now names the blocker at the moment of the block, instead of half a second before it.