After a missed jumper, the Indiana Pacers gained control of the basketball up by 4 points with 42 seconds left on the clock.  There was some confusion between coach Doug Collins and PG Jrue Holiday.  The result is what John Schuhmann called a candidate for the dumbest foul of the year.  It’s hard to argue with him.

Let’s look at the actual foul itself first.  It’s a pretty dumb decision in that if you are going to take the intentional foul, it should be as early in the clock as possible.  Holiday allowed 16 seconds to burn off the clock before taking the foul.  At that point, you might as well play straight defense and hope to get the basketball back off of a missed shot.

The next thing we should be taking a look at is Doug Collins’ decision not to foul right away (and it is obvious by watching Collins’ reaction that he didn’t want Holiday fouling intentionally).  This is a similar situation the Celtics’ faced yesterday in that it is a two possession game, and it is going to remain a two possession game whether the foul takes place or not, so I don’t understand why Collins would want to play this out instead of fouling right away.

In my opinion, I’d rather be down 6 with 42 seconds left than be down 4 with around 20 seconds left (and that is assuming that the Pacers don’t score when you are playing straight defense).  Also, even if the Sixers held them and scored, they would have had to take a foul (let’s say they get the ball back with 20 seconds left, score with 15, they still have to foul because they are still down 2).  When you are down multiple possessions, your goal is to extend the game and maximize the number of possessions (and shot attempts) you are going to get at the basket.  The 16 seconds that came off the clock is a good 2 or 3 possessions lost, and with the Sixers now down 6 with 26 seconds left, the Sixers are in a much tougher spot.