Back in October we told you about an in-depth study of a phenomenon known as "hot hands" — the term sometimes used to describe basketball players who appear to have transcended the limits of their normal hoop-shooting abilities. And after examining free-throw statistics from 6,150 games, the researchers concluded that…

Basketball fans are all familiar with terms like "hot hands," "on a roll," or "in the zone," that are used to describe players demonstrating what appears to be a streak of above-average performance. For over two decades, scientists have debated whether the phenomenon actually exists, or if basketball fans simply attribute…