I see it all the time where guys shoot for no other reason than to pad their stats with a lead. Part of the game. You'll get a good beat go you way someday. Here are two that stick in my memory....
I was at the Mirage in April, 1998. I had been playing blackjack up and down the strip and was absolutely plowed. I almost fell out of my blackjack chair trying to chase my shot of tequila with a Sam Adams at MGM a couple of hours earlier. Sue, the Chinese blackjack dealer from Alabama, probably thought I was a lush. We had gone to MGM looking for Eng, the Cambodian Nightmare, a blackjack dealer who won us huge money back in February, 1998.
Back to my story. We stumble over to Mirage (too poor for cabs) and sit down for the free drinks at sportsbook. Of course we had no money on the game but the waitress could see my buzz was in serious jeopardy if I didn't get some booze so she obliged. Jazz were 12 or 12.5 faves at home vs. Rockets depending on when you bought it and I swear there must have been a freakin' cowboy convention in town because all we had were Texans with tickets on Houston.
Close game but Utah starts to pull away in second half. The room is down but, miracle of miracles, Rockets start hitting shots and lock up the cover (so we thought). Down 8, they foul after missing a 3. Down 10, they shoot another 3 and Bryan Russell recounds w/ about 6 seconds left. For some unknown reason, he takes off all by himself and shoots a 3, completely f'ing the entire room in the a. Guy in front of me is screaming, "there is no FUC*ING reason," over and over. My friends drag me out of there before I take an arse whipping for laughing my drunken arse off.
Another good one was courtesy of that true professional (craps player) J.R. Rider. This is about 2000 when the Blazers had more talent than anyone by far. Sonics were in town and Blazers had control of the game, but never the 10.5 spread. No foulfest or anything.
Sonics miss a shot down 9 and Blazers take the ball up with under 24 to play. Rider dribbles out the clock near the half court line and all is good. Then, with about 4 seconds left as the Sonics are walking off the court Rider suddenly drives to the hole like it's game 7 and he's down 1 and dunks the freakin' ball to cover. The few fans left in the building (probably compulsive gamblers like myself) cheer like crazy, probably because he just gave them a miracle cover.