I think even getting it down to 6 was an anomoly. The second possession when Harden anticipated the foul and threw the ball up without the whistle going off actually created a turnover that resulted in a three (if I'm not mistaken). That alone got them within 6, if Harden doesn't make that mistake they never get within 9.
If the guy misses the first two, you should continue to hack him. Missing makes a player lose confidence and try to change his shot, thereby messing up his rhythm. But once he startes to hit, especially two in a roll, you should stop. Maybe come back and do it again after a couple of minutes game time after he's gone cold again.
Not true at all. Let's say team A is on a hot streak and is getting baskets 3 out of every 4 trips down the court. And say one of those is a 3-pointer. That's an average of 1.75 points per possession. Now you hack the other team's guy the next four possessions and he hits 75% of those -- 6 out of 8. That's an an average of 1.5 points per possession, and the strategy has worked, point-wise at least. Who knows how many points we'd have scored on those possessions when Asik was fouled? We might have pulled ahead comfortably. No way to know. Where the Hack-a-Turk strategy failed miserably is that it made public the feeling of desperation that has taken over the Thunder all of a sudden. Brooks told his team: I don't believe you guys can close out a team of youngsters on your home court (the BEST home crowd in the league) when you're only 8 points back and have 6 minutes left. That's a HUGE failure as a coach.
This. Also didn't help that they were all shooting like crap, and we were shooting high percentages as well.
It isn't the same thing. If a player averages 56% from the line, the odds that they'll make both are 31.4%. Compare that to shooting 56% from the field, and tell me what you'd rather give up.
At the end of it all since Asik has decent form on his shot, all of the attempts put him in a rhythm. Anyone that gets his form going and into a zone will continue to make shots from the FT once they get into a bit of a rhythm and that happened.
From a mathematical standpoint, Hack-a-Asik works. Stats per offensive trips down the floor (not possessions b/c that counts offensive rebounds as a new possession) Rockets- 113 pts per freethrow % + rebounding rate OKC- 123 pts per 110 pts per possession + 12 offensive rebounds greater than the team shooting free throws Its too bad Math doesn't win basketball!
That's pretty much what I said earlier, and just how I saw it watching the game. It reeked of desperation, of not believing that his team could beat the Rockets straight up in a dog fight. Just incredible considering their talent, their record, and that they were at home. When Brooks lucked out and it got to 6, if he'd gone back to his game plan, people might have ended up calling him a genius with a win. Yeah, he out-coached himself.
There's two things you need to consider. 1: Asik shoots ft's far worse on the road. He's closer to 40% away, and with a roaring OKC crowd and lots of pressure, its possible his ft% will be lower. 2: It stops Houston from running out the clock. Because Asik is fouled at the beginning of the shot clock, Houston cannot waste time and there will be more possessions in the game, which is good for OKC since they are losing.
