This one's on Pop

[cantthinkofanything]

11 seconds or less is a lot different then 3 seconds or less where players go directly into their shot when catching the ball. The NBA has gotten crazy about continuations already.

Very true. And the Spurs seem to get ed on calls like that.

[Obstructed_View]

The foul sends the message that you are not confident in your own team's ability to execute and win.

Much like hacking DeAndre Jordan or Shaq 20 times does.

[Agloco]

As he has in the past, most notably in the 2013 Finals, Pop stubbornly refused to foul when up 3 pts with almost no time left. Stupid. He's a great coach, but this is one of his stupid blind spots he needs to cure.
Sure, Kawhi missed free throws, but when you're up 3 pts with 4 seconds left, you have the game in the bag if you just foul the instant the ball gets inbounds. Barkley was even talking about it during the time out.

Lol no.

[therealtruth]

Great post. Too much risk and it's better to just try and play solid defense on a desperate heave. Those 3's drop because usually the D on the shot isn't always the staunchest. That's by design, the worst thing would be to give the refs anything to work with and call a foul over, so you keep a visible gap on the shooter and just hope you can keep them off balance enough.

Once he gets that desperate heave off all bets are off. You're playing lottery then. The only defense for that is to block the shot or alter it somehow.

[therealtruth]

"3-D": Late-Game Defensive Strategy with a 3-Point Lead

from 82Games.com
In 32 instances of a team electing to foul and thus force the opponent to make one free throw, miss the 2nd, AND get the O rebound AND then make the shot.....it happened 3 times out of 32.

Vs 20% of the time a team makes the Hail Mary trey.

http://www.82games.com/lawhorn.htm

I remember that article. The stats basically say it's better to foul in that situation. But I think the greater insight is that you don't allow the offense to dictate the action in that situation. Fouling is just one way of doing that but aggressively playing defense, going for steals, and forcing the offensive team to make fast decisions can accomplish the same thing. What's absolutely stupid is just allowing them to dictate the action and hoping your contest is good enough.

[look_at_g_shred]

Let it go.

[james evans]

how about guard the 3 point line with 3 seconds to go. what else would the cavs do except shoot a 3? we had so many players chasing cavs players from the paint. Just put one guy in the paint and 4 on the perimeter. It's simple basketball really. I can see if it were 10 seconds or even 8, but 3 seconds? cmon now.

[Cowboys_Wear_Spurs]

As he has in the past, most notably in the 2013 Finals, Pop stubbornly refused to foul when up 3 pts with almost no time left. Stupid. He's a great coach, but this is one of his stupid blind spots he needs to cure.
Sure, Kawhi missed free throws, but when you're up 3 pts with 4 seconds left, you have the game in the bag if you just foul the instant the ball gets inbounds. Barkley was even talking about it during the time out.

No, he did that early this year, I believe against the Pistons. And they made their FTs. Spurs missed theirs. It was a disaster. I would rather someone shoot a contested 3 than foul with time on the clock. Because as you saw, it was a complete failure the last time the Spurs did this.

Irving was just hot. That was one of those games he just didn't miss. Remember when Manu had like 45 pts in like 29-30 (that's right 30 minutes) against the Cavs about 7 years ago. Same thing, Manu couldn't miss and it was like watching a video game because everything was automatic. Great players sometimes have games like this which is an anomaly not the norm.

[therealtruth]

bump

[AFBlue]

Agree. Terrible lineups throughout the game, testing combinations that'd never been used. No wonder the team looked out of sync. He can talk about effort all he wants, but he doomed the Spurs last night.