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Veteran savvy: JaVale McGee pretends to be injured so he can pick up an easy score

When you’ve been around the NBA as long as Los Angeles Lakers big man JaVale McGee, you pick up a couple tricks. McGee showed off his veteran savvy Wednesday by deploying one of the most effective gimmicks we’ve seen just so he could get an easy bucket in a preseason game.

In the third quarter of Wednesday’s preseason game vs. the Golden State Warriors, McGee appeared to injure his leg during a play. He limps off the court to tend to the injury ... or does he.

Turns out, McGee was just waiting for his defender to forget about him. Once that happens, the 31-year-old McGee runs back on the court, catches a pass from Anthony Davis and picks up an easy dunk.

Here’s what it looked like in real time:

McGee’s move is, admittedly, a little cheap. It’s perhaps bad etiquette to fake an injury during a game to score points. At the same time, scoring points is hard enough in the NBA, and it was entertaining, so we’ll let it slide. Also, it was the preseason.

Ultimately, that’s the great disappointment here. McGee showed off this move during a preseason game and not a regular-season game. Now defenders are going to be on high alert every time McGee has a cramp during the season.

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik

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