Start the game
Open the game on the home page and press TIP OFF. No login is required. A three-second countdown appears, then the first prompt and the 25-second clock.
Read every condition in the prompt
Each prompt describes what counts as a valid answer. Watch for:
- Team — a specific franchise, sometimes including its former cities.
- Era or season range — e.g. players active in a certain decade.
- Statistical threshold — points, rebounds, assists, All-Star selections and similar.
- Answer type — some prompts want a college, arena, city or nickname instead of a player.
Read the whole prompt before typing. Missing one condition is the most common way to waste the clock.
Type your answer and press Shoot
Enter a full name and press Shoot. If the answer is not accepted, the clock keeps running — try again. If a surname is shared by several players, use the full name.
An accepted answer ends the round immediately. That means you only get one scored answer per prompt, so don’t fire your safe layup if you still have time to think of something deeper.
Collect your range
Accepted answers have preset point values. Common answers score little; rare valid answers score a lot, and the rarest are Buzzer Beaters worth 100. Points equal feet of range, so seven perfect prompts reach 700 ft. Read more in Long Shot scoring explained.
Daily reset and saving your streak
A new game opens at midnight in America/New_York, following daylight-saving changes. The original game stores your results in your browser’s local storage, so an embedded frame, a different browser or private mode may keep a separate record. Play on the same device and browser to keep your streak together.