Weird Week in Hoops: Steph kills the lights, Boggie catches Trae's strays

Every Sunday, theScore's most discerning minds highlight the week's lighter moments from around the basketball universe. Here's what caught our eyes this week.

Be warned: Weird Week contains coarse content.

Marvellous mishaps

If your idea of a fun time is having an NBA broadcast repeatedly interrupted by digital renderings of superheroes pacing robotically around the court, then Monday's "Marvel Arena of Heroes" game was right up your alley. (But not the alley where Bruce Wayne's parents were murdered; that's different IP.)

With all the hyper-realistic stylings of the Chuck E. Cheese house band, watch as Iron Man squats awkwardly atop the shot clock, Captain Marvel hovers lifelessly far above the court, and Black Panther drops in to get a better look at *squints* an Andrew Wiggins free throw.

For his play in the Warriors' tilt with the Pelicans, Draymond Green was named the first "Marvel Arena of Heroes" champion, granting him the right to train with the Avengers. That should come in handy if there's ever a villain whose lone weakness is getting booted below the belt.

May the 9th be with you

Speaking of ham-fisted brand synergy, though we're a little late in celebrating the exceedingly cleverly named "May the Fourth," it's never a bad time to resurrect one of the most befuddling non sequiturs in red-carpet history, courtesy of legitimate hoops connoisseur Laura Dern.

Anyway, as they say on Tatooine: Live long and prosper!

DNP - Victim of aerial collision

You know who won't live long and prosper? Cassius Winston, so long as Russell Westbrook continues to imperil the Wizards rookie with airborne explosions befitting a SpaceX rocket like this one from Wednesday:

Winston, a frequent DNP - coach's decision casualty, learned his lesson and exhibited more caution the next night before playing zero minutes against the Raptors. That's now a total of 12 seconds played over his last four outings. Gotta stay fresh.

Trae's pass is on the money

So nice they named him twice, Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic was lucky his knee didn't shred like lettuce on a footlong cold cut trio before he took a pinpoint pass from Trae Young to the noggin in Monday's game against the Trail Blazers.

Curry shoots the lights out in the Big Easy

Before things went dim with 3:58 left in the third quarter of Tuesday's contest against the Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center, Steph Curry was lights out with 35 points on 12-for-20 shooting from the field.

The Warriors led by seven, but as Curry readied from deep, somebody flipped a switch. Curry would then go 1-for-11 from the floor and 0-for-6 from 3-point land as the Dubs squandered their advantage in a loss.

Kawhi makes rare social media appearance

Savant of silence Kawhi Leonard made his maiden bow on Instagram Live on Monday, teasing a new track called "Everything Different" featuring rappers NBA Young Boy and Rod Wave.

The Clippers star plugged an initiative that will fuse hip-hop and basketball (finally!) with a snippet from the tune starring NBA YoungBoy (NBA stands for "Never Broke Again," an albeit confusing acronym in this case) and Rod Wave (who is neither a surfer nor a body of water, as far as we know). Kawhi seems really excited.

Marc 'The Wolf' Gasol

When Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) transformed a colleague into Spaghettios at the expense of a car's interior in "Pulp Fiction," Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel) saved the day with a masterclass in management.

Wolfe, AKA "The Wolf," is measured, competent, and responsive: "That's 30 minutes away. I'll be there in 10." The ultimate cleaner.

Marc Gasol has gone from a rotational afterthought to a key contributor for the Lakers. Like The Wolf, he's at his team's beck and call and always efficient under pressure. Now it all makes sense.

With a handful of games left, the Lakers are at risk of finishing in the play-in spots. Perhaps Gasol would be wise to deliver a version of The Wolf's "Don't pat yourselves on the back just yet" speech (paraphrased for obvious reasons).

Come back next Sunday for more oddities, inanities, and obscenities from the wonderful world of basketball.