Usage of "blow by a defender" in basketball games

Question

I have a problem to understand the usage of "blow by" or "blow-by" in basketball games (see title of the video). At first I thought "blow by a defender" means that some action is done by the defender. But no, now I can roughly understand it means that the offensive player passed the defender fast. Sometimes NBA announcers also say "... gets a step with a blow-by." That roughly means the same thing as a noun.
I couldn't find the phrase "blow by" in any dictionaries. Could anyone explain it to me? On the other hand, what does the usage of "by" here? Why it is connected to the verb as "blow by" rather than "by the defender"?

Xanne · Accepted Answer

Blow has a number of definitions and related phrasal verbs, as recounted in AHD:
https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=blow
Most are related to a strong or sudden movement of air, whether by a person a storm, or something else. We all know that the wind blows.
In the basketball case “blowing by” a defender seems to mean avoiding the defender by moving swiftly and adroitly. This meaning is different from the meaning of a blow as the hit or strike of an opponent.
“Blow” generates quite a few phrasal verbs—blow out (a light), blow up (a building), blow off (slang for deciding not to do something), all of which take objects. Blow by a defender in a basketball game is that kind of use, although it doesn’t show up in AHD’s list.
Figuratively might one say “His violin playing was so great it “blew me away,” which means it had a strong impact on you.
The terminology of a sport develops on its own and therefore, as you have discovered, you need to relate the terms to the action to figure out how it’s being used.

Usage of "blow by a defender" in basketball games

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