Brazil’s Intentional Miss
Down by two with three seconds left, Brazil had starting point guard Marcelo Huertas heading to the line with a chance to tie the game. Huertas, a 66.7% free throw shooter in the tournament (4-6), missed the first one. With so little time left, there was no way Brazil could make the second foul shot and still have a chance to win. This means that Brazil needed to miss on purpose and secure the rebound to get one final shot at the basket. That is exactly what they were able to pull off.
As Huertas gets the basketball, it is obvious that Team USA is concerned with Leandro Barbosa at the top of the key. Billups is fronting him so he can’t use his speed to grab a long rebound. Despite this, the key matchup (and where Team USA should have really focused their attention) is actually on the far side block where Team USA only has one man to try and secure the rebound.
As the shot goes up, you start to see Brazil’s play develop. Instead of trying to get through Odom and get to the rim, Brazil’s big man instead uses his position to pin Odom in the paint. This clears up the entire corner, and it is where Huertas is trying to direct his miss.
As you can see, all the bodies are in the paint and Huertas is the only one who is able to grab his very well directed miss.
Huertas secures the basketball, but Team USA is very quick to recover, getting a hard double team on him, preventing him from getting a shot off.
Huertas is somehow able to find Barbosa on the block, but he can’t hit the lay-up, and Brazil loses a tough one by two. Here is the play in real time:
Brazil’s Missed Free Throw Play
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Considering the situation, Brazil was able to get the best look possible, and although it didn’t go in, they gave teams a blueprint for how to miss a free throw on purpose. With only five team fouls necessary to send teams into the bonus, I feel like this situation will end up coming up again in an important game. I wonder if teams will use Brazil’s strategy when it happens.
