The question of whether a team should foul when up three points at the end of a game has raged on for as long as the 3-point line has been around. Some coaches always foul when up three. Some never do. Others employ it situationally, such as only doing it in the final few seconds so that the opposing team has to miss on purpose and get a rebound and a putback.
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No matter how you play it, there’s always the potential for any move to backfire. Teams must be careful not to let an opposing player get into a shooting motion, lest they give up three free throws and a chance to tie the game. On the other hand, letting the end of a game play out naturally looks foolish when someone hits a clutch shot.
On the latest episode of Mind the Game, LeBron James and Steve Nash brought their usual nuance to the discussion as they discussed not only the merits of fouling vs. not fouling, but all the other factors a team must consider before making a decision.
“If I’m coaching, we’re fouling up three,” LeBron said, a sentiment which Nash immediately agreed with.
“Obviously, you gotta see how many timeouts that you personally have, where if you do foul up three, you can advance the ball. The last thing you wanna do is not have any timeouts, you fouled up three, you have to take the ball underneath your basket,” the 4 time NBA champion added, weighing in the pro and cons
“If they get a strip, or they get to trap you and get a steal, they’re closer to the rim, so you have to see how many timeouts you have. How many timeouts they have as well, how long can they extend the game as well. I’m more of an ‘under 30 seconds, under 24 seconds’ type foul up three guy,” explained LeBron.
For LeBron to say he’d foul when up three with under 30 seconds left is a bit strange, since a team could make both free throws and still get the ball back while playing a normal defensive possession. Under 24 seconds (the length of the shot clock) makes much more sense as it would force the other team to foul if they didn’t get a quick steal on the other end.
Nash brought up a few other important variables that should dictate whether a team should foul in that situation. “How good a free throw-shooting team are you?” he asked. “How many good free throw shooters do you have? And one that I think is underrated is how good of an inbound passer you have on your team.”
“You can get caught sometimes where teams are gonna pressure, foul, they gotta try to go for a steal but while fouling, they’re gonna run through people. If you have a great passer, it makes all your actions, your get-in plays much easier,” the Lakers legend said.
One final key that LeBron spoke about was that teams need to actually practice these plays. So often a game comes down to these situations, and the best teams know what they want to do because they’ve run through every possible scenario already.
“You have to take five minutes at the end of practice,” LeBron suggested.
“Let’s walk through this, everybody on the baseline, what is our ‘up three’ need play to get in, what is our ‘up two’ need play to get the ball in, what is it if a team’s fouling us. Who takes the ball out? Who is in the backcourt? Who is in the frontcourt? Is it on the side? Is it behind our basket? All those types of things,” he noted.
Most fans watch a game and never think about these kinds of things, but there’s so much thought that goes into every second of an NBA game. Winning is about much more than having the best athletes or the best shooters. It really is like a high-speed chess match, and once again, Mind the Game has given us a peek behind the curtain.
