TIME TO WIN

In this trilogy closer, point guard Raam Patel may have made his middle school basketball team, but he has more challenges to face before he can earn a starting role.

Raam’s hard-won maturity from previous episodes stands the seventh grader in good stead, since being named to the team doesn’t stop the relentless bullying he receives from some teammates or make growing tensions at home between his parents any less distracting. Nor does it make it any easier to deal with feelings of failure when a toe injury not only forces him to bow out of a dance competition that could save his mother’s struggling Bollywood dance studio, but also leaves him riding the bench while his team loses its first game. In both casual situations and set pieces, like a Thanksgiving dinner that fuses traditional American and Indian cuisines, Shah adds rich cultural context to his young ball player’s progress as grueling practices that elevate both personal and team skills give way to intense game action on the way to a climactic at-the-buzzer triumph. Domestic stress and ongoing friendship issues abate, too, buoying the ending further. But it’s Raam’s resilient responses both to hostile peers and to setbacks to his basketball dreams that truly shine out, as cheerworthy as his adroit play on the court.

A soaring drive to the finish.