The Atlanta Hawks were trailing the Los Angeles Clippers by one point with 3.3 seconds left, taking the ball from the side after a timeout.  The Hawks came out and ran a nice change of direction play, catching the primary defender off balance, forcing the help to step up.  Unfortunately for the Clippers, that help came late:

As soon as the ball goes to the trigger man, Joe Johnson, the Hawks get into their set.  It starts with Jamal Crawford flashing towards the basketball, then curling around Josh Smith, Marvin Williams then fades to the opposite wing as Al Horford flashes to the basketball at the elbow.

After Horford makes the catch, Joe Johnson cuts off of him looking for a handoff.  Horford fakes it and this catches DeAndre Jordan leaning a little bit, and giving Horford a lane to drive.  With the primary defender beat, the Clippers’ help defenders (Randy Foye and Blake Griffin) really need to step up.

However both Randy Foye and Blake Griffin are late for different reasons.  Foye is late because he is afraid to leave his man open in the short corner.  Griffin is late, because he fails to get in proper help position.  He gets too close to Josh Smith, and that makes his distance to recover to Horford too far.

In addition to Griffin being out of position, he recognizes he should help too late.  As you can see, he is still up against Josh Smith as Al Horford picks up his dribble and starts at the rim.

Blake Griffin is late arriving with the help, and that is what leads to the foul (whether or not it is a flagrant really didn’t matter, though it was a questionable call). Horford hits both foul shots and clinches the game.  Here is the play in real time:

Before talking a little more about the Clippers, let’s focus on the Hawks.  This is a great little play by the Hawks, taking advantage of their ISO-Joe reputation they have.  I think just about every Clipper on the court thought the ball was going to Johnson, but Horford keeps it at the last second and attacks the rim.  Great design.

As for the Clippers, I don’t know their defensive strategy in the final seconds, but most teams don’t like to send help from the short corner in this situation.  If the Clippers strategy is the same, this means Blake Griffin is really at fault here.  He focuses on his man too much, and that creates too much distance to cover, and that is why he picks up the foul.  He’s a rookie though, and hopefully he will be able to learn from this experience.