Fighting for their playoff lives, the Houston Rockets were down 4 points with 1:06 seconds left.  Their opponent the L.A. Clippers just pulled down an offensive rebound and bring the ball upcourt:

Now, it is obvious that the Clippers are trying to kill some clock here, and they effectively do.  20 valuable seconds come off the clock before Baron Davis hits his jumper.  This brings up something that has always bothered me when it comes down to coaches strategy, why don’t NBA teams foul earlier when they are losing (not counting the Hack-a-Shaq)?  The Rockets don’t foul in this situation, but they aren’t the only one, most teams in the NBA won’t foul here, and I think it’s silly.  In my opinion, when you are down by more than 1 possession with a minute left you want to extend the game as long as you can, and one way to do that is you foul.

Now, let’s use the above situation from the Rockets game as our starting point.  If the Rockets foul as soon as the Clippers get the ball and Baron Davis makes both of them, they are down 6 points with 1:06 left instead of being down 6 with 46 seconds left.  That is 20 seconds he could have saved, and in a NBA game 20 seconds is pretty damn valuable.  Another benefit of fouling is that there is no guarantee that the shooter will make both (remember that Golden State-Phoenix game a couple of days back).

The Rockets actually come down and quickly score in their next possession, they are now once again down four, but this time with 40 seconds left:

Again, the Rockets don’t foul and again Baron Davis runs down the clock, but this time he hits a three instead of a two and effectively closes out the game.

If the Clippers would have fouled in both of these situations, they would only be down 6 with about 40 seconds left, and while it is still a long shot, it is much more manageable than being down 7 with 17 seconds left.  Also, that is if the opposing team makes both of them, and that is never a guarantee, especially late.

The Quick Three

The Grizzlies come out of a timeout down by 5.  Now they have two options they can either go for the 2 or go for the 3.  The key though is that they need to get a shot at the rim quickly (we will get to that in a minute).  Mayo sets the downscreen for Zach Randolph in attempt to free him up at the top of the key.

Randolph gets a few feet of separation, and Rudy Gay quickly gets the ball into his hands.  This is important, because some plays that I have broken down on here in the past shows that inbounders can hold onto the ball for a little too long, and that can mess up the flow of the entire play.  Here though, Randolph gets him the ball in a position to operate.

Randolph makes the catch and puts the ball on the floor.  As he does this, Mayo is coming over the top for a dribble-handoff.  I love this call.  This gives Randolph options.  He can either hand it off if he feels like Mayo is going to be open or he could fake the handoff and get a lane at the basket.  Either way, this allows for something to happen quickly.

Randolph makes the hand-off and then gets a piece of Mayo’s defender, freeing him up a bit.  Bargnani is late recognizing the pick, and he doesn’t get a closeout quick enough.

This allows Mayo to set up for a wide open three.  He knocks it down.

This play ran 5 seconds off the clock.  Going quick was so key here, because now that they scored there is still 32 seconds left.  This allows them to play defense and try to get a stop without having to foul.  Going quick and setting up a 2 for 1 late is so important to me that I would almost rather see my team take a poor quick shot instead of working it around and getting a good shot with less than 24 seconds left.  That is how important it is.

The Stop

After making the basket, Toronto doesn’t call a timeout, they inbound it and Memphis decides to put some pressure on the ball.

The pressure works, and now there are seven seconds on the shot clock, and the Raptors haven’t even started their offense.  Calderon still has his back to the basket, there is no way you can get a good shot starting the offense with 7 seconds left.

Calderon dribbles off of a Bosh screen, but again being passive, he picks up the ball 5 feet behind the three point line.  He can’t do anything from there, so he swings the ball to Bargnani.

Randolph closes hard on Bargnani, who does a great job of penetrating.  The problem is that with only 3 seconds left on the shot clock, there is no way he is going to get all they way to the rim, or even have the time to penetrate and kick.

Bargnani ends up taking a rushed jumper at the elbow.  I know Wright is wide open in the corner, but you can’t make that pass.  Think about it, if he does, it will take a second for the ball to travel to the corner, and it will force him into a rushed three.  Not really a better option (actually a worse one because threes result in longer rebounds).

The Break

Coming off Bargnani’s missed jumper, Mike Conley grabs the rebound with 7.4 seconds left.  The Grizzlies don’t call a timeout, they quickly go.  Look at Rudy Gay, as soon as he Conley secure the rebound, he takes off.  This is going to be very important later.

Conley does the smart thing and keeps the ball in the middle of the court.  This allows him to have a passing lane on both sides.  This is a problem for the two defenders back for the Raptors.

Conley does another smart thing in keeping his dribble until a defender meets him.  When Calderon comes up to stop Conley’s attack, it opens up a lane for Zach Randolph.

Conley makes the pass and Randolph finishes at the rim.  This ties the game, and after the Raptors miss a buzzer beater, the Grizzlies take the momentum and end up running away with the game in overtime.