Somebody please GIF the Harden 3 pt shot during Hack-a-Howard

People have known this since hack-a-whoever was invented, it's just incredibly hard to time because usually the hacking happens way too early in the shot clock for a decent shot and they opponents obviously won't hack anyone if the ball has already been shot. It's a big risk. Kobe tried to do it when we were hacking Howard last year and just ended up missing a half court shot without a foul being called.

 

If I remember right, the first time or two that Hack-a-Turk was used last year, Harden was shooting half-court shots each time Asik was fouled. The refs never called for him to shoot free throws like last night, but a bunch of his shots were scary close to going in. If he'd made one, the refs would've had quite a decision to make. I expect we'll continue to see him try to exploit that quirk of the rules whenever possible.

 

No decision whatsoever. If the shot goes in, it counts and Asik (player who was fouled, not the player who took the shot) shoots the and-1. If it doesn't, the shot attempt is nullified (this also happens in regular shooting fouls that don't go in, they don't count against a player's FG%) and the player who was fouled will shoot the FT's as usual.

Last night's play was neither of those situations. As has been stated before in this thread, the call was Bellinelli fouling Harden on the shot.

 

2:41 97-98 Tony Parker makes driving layup (Manu Ginobili assists)
2:33 97-98 Marco Belinelli shooting foul (James Harden draws the foul)
2:33 James Harden misses free throw 1 of 3 97-98
2:33 Rockets offensive team rebound 97-98
2:33 James Harden makes free throw 2 of 3 98-98
2:33 James Harden makes free throw 3 of 3 99-98

I heard Bill and everybody saying Harden was shooting while Howard was fouled, etc, so I thought it was a foul on Howard too, but I guess not. From the play-by-play it def was a foul on Harden that was called.