With 43 seconds left, the Philadelphia 76ers got a bucket to cut the Miami Heat’s lead down to four points.  Here, the Philadelphia coaching staff had a decision to make, either foul, and send the Heat to the line or play it out and hope to get the stop.  The Sixers played it out:

They were able to get the stop, but the Heat (especially Wade and James) did a great job winding the clock all of the way down, getting a mismatch by using a ballscreen, and getting the shot off at the last possible second (the ball was in the air as the shot clock buzzer went off) before attempting the shot.  Basically, the Sixers went from being down 4 with 43 points to being down 4 with 17.4 seconds left.  This was the Sixers’ next possession:

A rushed three was basically their only option at this point.  So was this the right decision?  It’s easy to say this after the fact, but I don’t think it was.  I have talked about this a few different times and in my opinion you need to take the foul right away down 4 (keep in mind Philadelphia had two timeouts left).

This is because the difference between a four and six point deficit isn’t much late (it is still a two possession game), so I would rather foul, extend the game, and try to give yourself as much time (and as many possessions) as possible to score and get back in the game.  By not fouling, you take 24 seconds off of the shot clock and are basically put in an all or nothing situation.  If you make it (usually a three point attempt), great, you are back in the game.  If not the game is over.  When you foul early and get the ball back with around 40 seconds left, you are giving yourself a little room for error by having more time and possessions to try and get back in the game.