Why Fouling Up Three Can Backfire | NBA Playbook

Why Fouling Up Three Can Backfire

If you have watched a game that Doug Collins has called over the past couple of years, you know that he is in favor of fouling up three.  Any close game that required a coach to decide whether or not to foul up three, Collins would let the world know that he would take the foul in a similar situation.

Well, coach Collins finally got his chance last night against the Wizards, and he didn’t go back on his word.  However, fouling up three may have cost his team the game:

Now, this is all about preference and it is pretty obvious that I am not in favor of fouling up three. I personally think there is a lot that could go wrong when you foul up three, and that you are extending the game when there is no real reason to.

In this specific case, it really made no sense to foul up three.  You have a rookie point guard and as the play is taking place, they don’t really have anything going on.  John Wall is taking the ball to the wing, but there is not really anything happening.  I would have much rather trusted my defense and see if they can get the stop.  Fouling up three extends the game, and when you extend the game things like this can happen:

The crazy thing about this clip is that it seems Andre Iguodala was trying to foul again.  He almost gets his hand caught in the cookie jar, and that could have lead to a four point play.

Again, this is all about coaching preference and I have seen fouling up three work (there has also been situations when not fouling up three hasn’t worked also).  Credit to Doug Collins for sticking to his guns (and he has won a lot more games in the NBA than I have), but it just didn’t work this time.

03
Nov 2010
POSTED BY Sebastian Pruiti
POSTED IN 4th Quarters Coaching Strategy Philadelphia 76ers Washington Wizards
DISCUSSION 7 Comments
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  • MRB

    I don't think the foul extends the game – that three could have happened just as easy with a John Wall swing pass as from the out-of-bounds. There's overhead involved with inbounding the ball. Actually, i think the foul here worked perfect – the foul basically sucked 2/3rds of the remaining time off the clock. Eventually, you get a crazyluckythree which would have happened had Wall been unmolested there at the end anyhow.

  • MRB

    I don’t think the foul extends the game – that three could have happened just as easy with a John Wall swing pass as from the out-of-bounds. There’s overhead involved with inbounding the ball. Actually, i think the foul here worked perfect – the foul basically sucked 2/3rds of the remaining time off the clock. Eventually, you get a crazyluckythree which would have happened had Wall been unmolested there at the end anyhow.

  • MRB

    I don't think the foul extends the game – that three could have happened just as easy with a John Wall swing pass as from the out-of-bounds. There's overhead involved with inbounding the ball. Actually, i think the foul here worked perfect – the foul basically sucked 2/3rds of the remaining time off the clock. Eventually, you get a crazyluckythree which would have happened had Wall been unmolested there at the end anyhow.

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