Near the end of a basketball game, for example, with the score close and the outcome of the game hanging in the balance, players may administer hard fouls to stop opponents from scoring, harder fouls, that is, than perhaps they would’ve committed in the beginning of the match. In other words, at the end of a close game, players play harder when the stakes are higher, when the game might be won or lost on making or missing a layup, a loose ball here or a missed defensive assignment there.
Not to mention a controversial call by one of the refs.
Anyways, in the example from above, the family has not been preparing to move back to China, I don’t think. Moving back to China, in other words, is merely a last resort, the final option after all other alternatives are exhausted.
In other words, they would rather “push” not come to “shove”, i.e. things don’t get completely out of hand.
Anyways, “when push comes to shove” is a most useful idiom to learn. A very widely used one it is too. Here are but a few media examples:
1. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., found himself defending his support for Israel Tuesday while answering a question from a Jewish Democrat from Florida who was concerned about the Illinois Democrat’s support among Muslims and Arab-Americans as well as a pro-Palestinian comment that Obama made last month.
“We are obviously friends with all of them,” Robert Seidemann of West Palm Beach, Fla. told Obama at a conference sponsored by the National Jewish Democratic Council. “However, when it comes to Israel and push comes to shove, how can you make us, as Jews, totally comfortable in addressing the issues in Israel and moving toward what no president has been able to do and that is establish a peace?”
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