The Jazz Go For The Three Instead Of The Quick Two, Was It The Right Call? | NBA Playbook

The Jazz Go For The Three Instead Of The Quick Two, Was It The Right Call?

Against the Spurs, the Jazz found themselves down five points with 20.9 seconds left in the game.  At this point in the game, and with 1 timeout left, the Jazz were faced with a tough decision.  They could decide to either go for the quick two, foul, and use their timeout to extend the game, or go for three and do the same thing.  Utah decided to go for three:

Now, obviously if you can get three points, you take them, but usually threes are harder to come by late, meaning more time will come off the clock instead of going for a quick two.  Often times if you try to get a quick three up (which is what Williams does in the first clip), it is going to be contested, and that is exactly what happens here.

I am leaning towards going for the quick two, mainly because the Jazz still had a timeout, but also, defenses tend to give up quick twos, and I would have used that to my advantage.  I would have liked to see them get a quick basket, foul, hope for some free throw misses, and then look to tie the game with a three coming out of a timeout.

I know that scoring and then having the Spurs miss two free throws is a long shot, but if you continue to extend the game, crazy things tend to happen.  You miss the three (which is what happened to the Spurs here), and the game is over.  If you can get an open three point shot quickly, you should definitely take it, because you are going to need to hit a three eventually to complete the comeback, but with 20 seconds still left in the game, I wouldn’t force a contested three up just yet.  What do you guys think?

27
Jan 2011
POSTED BY Sebastian Pruiti
POSTED IN 4th Quarters Clock Management Utah Jazz
DISCUSSION 9 Comments
TAGS

  • jazz fan

    I was at this game, and I tend to agree with you on going for the quick two. Deron's 3 was contested anyway, so I'm surprised they didn't end up with a better shot on that play.

  • jazz fan

    I was at this game, and I tend to agree with you on going for the quick two. Deron’s 3 was contested anyway, so I’m surprised they didn’t end up with a better shot on that play.

  • http://twitter.com/philrsquared Philip Rossman-Reich

    As much as fans hate to see games get dragged out at the end by fouls, you should probably take the points and try to give yourself a chance. The other team still has to make the free throws and that is not always a given. Strange things can happen, but only if you give yourself the opportunity to let them happen.

  • http://twitter.com/philrsquared Philip Rossman-Reich

    As much as fans hate to see games get dragged out at the end by fouls, you should probably take the points and try to give yourself a chance. The other team still has to make the free throws and that is not always a given. Strange things can happen, but only if you give yourself the opportunity to let them happen.

  • Nick

    you have to give yourself two options here. I am a big fan of taking what the D gives you at the end, or else you're putting yourself in a sub-optimal situation.
    Run something like a pick and pop with the floor spaced with 3 other shooters and if they hedge, the pop should be open, but they'll likely go over the screen with a quick hedge and recover, so in that case you take the layup.

    Or you run set a down screen and do the same thing -read the big – if he hedges you should have an easy roll for a layup and if he doesn't you have a catch and shoot, albeit a contested one.

  • Nick

    you have to give yourself two options here. I am a big fan of taking what the D gives you at the end, or else you’re putting yourself in a sub-optimal situation.
    Run something like a pick and pop with the floor spaced with 3 other shooters and if they hedge, the pop should be open, but they’ll likely go over the screen with a quick hedge and recover, so in that case you take the layup.

    Or you run set a down screen and do the same thing -read the big – if he hedges you should have an easy roll for a layup and if he doesn’t you have a catch and shoot, albeit a contested one.

  • racerx_is_alive

    The Jazz have been really struggling on the boards lately, but I'm more willing to let Deron take a contested 3 if I've got people like Millsap in good position to potentially get the rebound and make a quick putback. I can't see if that was the case here as the videos are blocked but Millsap has traditionally gotten lots of points on quick putbacks.

  • Anonymous

    The Jazz have been really struggling on the boards lately, but I’m more willing to let Deron take a contested 3 if I’ve got people like Millsap in good position to potentially get the rebound and make a quick putback. I can’t see if that was the case here as the videos are blocked but Millsap has traditionally gotten lots of points on quick putbacks.

  • racerx_is_alive

    The Jazz have been really struggling on the boards lately, but I'm more willing to let Deron take a contested 3 if I've got people like Millsap in good position to potentially get the rebound and make a quick putback. I can't see if that was the case here as the videos are blocked but Millsap has traditionally gotten lots of points on quick putbacks.