we stopped trying to score and started to clock manage the last 3 minutes (including Harden's "turnover" at 2 secs left, lol), so our ppp is a little skewed from it
Well, if they played regularly, they likely would've lost. The history of teams winning when they're up 10 with 5 minutes to play is very high. And the Thunder only managed a pitifully 83 points up to that point. It's not like they were scoring at will on us and vice versa.
The rockets ts% is 57 so it was a good strategy. Asik just hit his ft. They got the lead down to 6. They should have stopped at that point.
Also took out OKC's crowd. They got rowdy after a bucket (think it was a three and forgot who shot it). Then they immediately foul Asik, who drains a free throw, and the crowd goes silent. Momentum gone.
I thought the hack approach was worth taking. It actually worked the beginning, just sent him a time or 2 too many. Thats how I think it was. Instead of putting Asik in "unfamiliar territory" as a volume free throw shooter, it more put Asik in a rhythm.
What's stopping Asik from just running away from whoever is trying to foul him, while the other guys quickly attack the rim in an open 4v4? He can even run back to dressing room if he wants to right?
It saves you precious time to catch up from behind. Yes, Asik may hit 56% of the free throws, but you avoid 3 pointers, and 1's. Most importantly you disrupt their rhythm and significantly increase your offensive possessions, which increase the variance and boost your odds of reducing the deficit near end of the game with little time left.
Asik's not that quick and just kind of accepted it at that point. After the first couple, he pretty much walked a few steps waiting from someone to hug him.
This is another important factor. Much easier to shoot FT's after getting into a rhythm. It is incredibly hard to shoot your first FT after getting hammered in the lane after wrestling for rebounds for half an hour.
Agreed. At least they got rid of the ridiculous illegal offense (where if four guys are on one side of the court it is illegal).
The math works. If Asik goes 0-2 or 1-4, you keep fouling him. This was what we did against DHO. If he's 2-2 or 3-4, you stop.
Talk about an act of desperation hahaha, the Thunder are in trouble. I love that it didn't work out for them.jokers. Too funny Coach Brooks
Folks, the strategy was 1 or2 points from asik vs 3 pointers OKC was trying really hard to get. It would have worked out, unfortunately for the 3 wasnt falling and Asik came in strong with his FTs. Bravo! He was really clutch today!
The strategy makes sense sometimes. However, you need a lot of things to line up to make it worth while to even attempt it. 1) A poor FT shooter. Asik at 58% is actually not quite bad enough to be worth fouling in my opinion. It's marginal at best. NBA average PPP is 1.02. The Rockets PPP is 1.07. So you really don't want to foul a player that's shooting that shoots 53% or better from the line otherwise it's a wash. That said, if someone is around 50%, you're basically pushing up the variance and hope they miss both shots or shoot their norm. On the flip side, once Asik is hitting his shots they should have just stopped. Seasons stats are deceptive when used to judge a single game. Players run hot and cold, and Asik was shooting better than normal from the FT line. Brooks should have figured that out sooner. 2) You believe that you can't defend against the other team's offense. This is a big one. You do that, you're basically waving the white flag on the defensive end. You're telling your team that you have no answers to the other team's offense. This makes sense in the case of Dwight (who is REALLY hard to stop from scoring once he catches). Given that OKC is a top 5 defensive team, this is a stunning strategic choice. It's one thing to foul against the Spurs (a championship calibre team), to foul against a team that you're *supposed* to beat like the Rockets is unexpected to say the least and isn't good for team morale. 3) You are in a significant point deficit without enough possessions remaining to close the lead normally. With 8 mins left of a 48 min game, that works out to about 15 offensive possessions. If you can extract let's say a 25% possession differential with stops, that might net you an extra 3-4 possessions. Fouling stops the clock and increases your possessions substantially. This makes sense if you're down 10 or 15 points with time dwindling down. However, if you're only down 2-3 possessions (5-8 points) with 6 minutes left, you should let your defense do the job. A strategic error on the part of Brooks in hacking Asik for too many plays. Assuming all of those line up, there are down sides to the Hack game. - it loads fouls on your team (REALLY bad if you end up in OT) - it gives the opposing team time to set up defensively, eliminating the transition game - it can lull your players into a sense of complacency and lower their intensity - it takes the crowd out of the game (BAD if it's your home court) All that said, I think Brooks made an error. Asik's 58% season isn't low enough to justify going to the strategy. The lead was largish, but nowhere near insurmountable especially with so much time left. Rockets transition defense isn't exactly stellar so you don't want to give them time to set up their defense. OKC is supposed to be the superior team, so Why wouldn't you let the team play through it? And OKC has one of the loudest buildings in the NBA. Why on earth would you want to take them out of the equation? In the 4th quarter, I think Scott Brooks out coached himself.
It was actually an interesting strategy by the Energizer Bunny. "Hack-a-Turk" cut the deficit, and nearly forced us to take Asik out from the game, which would have afforded just enough window of opportunity for OKC to attack the basket without much resistance.
As other have mention the math is you give up 0-2 points and hope to make 2-3 points on your possession without wasting a lot of time. It would work if OKC could make their shots.
