The Great Debate: To Foul or Not to Foul
Last night in the NBA we saw one of the great regular season games in recent memory. The San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers put on a basketball clinic that satisfied even the casual sports fan's taste for great competition. San Antonio was exceptional in their sharing of the basketball and built a seemingly comfortable enough lead to add on to their win streak. Meanwhile, Cleveland was building some momentum on a variety of breath taking shots by Kyrie Irving and LeBron James. In the final minute the only chance the Cavaliers had was to bomb away at the three point line and hope the Spurs missed at the foul line. The Cavs prayers were getting answered as the Spurs left the door open for some great late game drama. It also set us up for one of the great coaching debates going for late game scenarios, foul or not to foul?
So what is the right answer? Well one of the greatest coach in sports history, Gregg Popovich, elected not to foul leading by 3 in the games last 4 seconds. LeBron James inbounded and found the incredibly hot Kyrie Irving. He was contested but only moderately and Irving knocked down a game tying jumper much to his delight and to the Spurs fan's disbelief. So "Pop" opted not to foul and in this case got burned. Irving was making everything at this point and continued to do so in overtime for an eventual Cavs victory. What is the right play there?
Certainly I am not a coach, but I do play one on the radio. I think there is not hard and fast rule that fits every situation. Here is what I think I would do as a coach. I think the time and timeout situation can get to more clarity on what should be done. If you are up 3, under 5 seconds and the trailing team has no timeouts left, I say 100% of the time you foul. It has to be executed properly, but if it is I think you win that game the majority of the time. The NBA has too many good shooters that make tough shots to watch them launch a 3 for the tie. I honestly can't remember that many games where a team has been burned by fouling up 3 and the shooter makes the first, misses the 2nd on purpose, watches his team get the ball back and shoot a 2 for the tie or 3 for the win.
The odd thing to me is that more coaches elect not to foul and hope to defend and contest the 3 pointer. The way Kyrie was going last night he could have kicked that one in. So even a coaching legend like Gregg Popovich will continue that question in his head to foul or not to foul? The question will go on, let's just hope more games like last night will occur to get us to think about the great debate.
