I take it back. Now I think he was trying to flop. It's his way to make the foul look worse than it was.
I think this clip is so visceral and rewatchable because we all played basketball as little kids and there were these moments, whether it was us or teammates or other little kids, where someone did something completely awful-looking and insane. And we could all acknowledge, silently, "oh, that was pretty bad. That was really really bad." And run back down the court.
Even though he was a member of the Rockets for what feels like 5 minutes, why is there a thread about this? Alexey simply needs to go back to the mantra of changing his face. That's the only way he'll be happy.
