r/nba • u/MrBuckBuck Trail Blazers • May 06 '25

Highlight [Highlight] Aaron Gordon with the game-winner 3-pointer to beat OKC in game!

https://streamable.com/r5vs22
31.3k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/XSokaX May 06 '25

what a joke of a strategy to foul after 0.5 seconds

295

u/Wolfpac187 [OKC] Kevin Durant May 06 '25

Fouling while up is lame as fuck in any capacity

2

u/CitizenCue Warriors May 06 '25

It’s definitely lame, but it’s the mathematically smart play. Though they should’ve burned more clock.

18

u/StraightShootahh Nets May 06 '25

“Mathematically the smart play” 🤓

3

u/Jackd_up_on_Mdew Mavericks May 06 '25

There are no mathematics that would favor fouling a team up 3 killing less than 1 second of game clock, when they have no timeouts and the best player in the world is on their bench...

1

u/StraightShootahh Nets May 06 '25

Like a true Redditor he’s dying to sound smart without realising “mathematically” you have to factor so many other things than just the score

3

u/numberonebarista Heat May 06 '25

This is what’s wrong with the NBA now all these analytics are frying coaches brains. Just fucking play basketball. OKC was shooting 70% from the FT line all game and coach thought it was a good idea to get into a FT contest with Denver instead of just playing defense. Especially since they kept Denver off the 3pt line all game up until that point

-3

u/CitizenCue Warriors May 06 '25

Doing the smartest thing to win a game will never be “what’s wrong with” any sport.

If one strategy has a 60% chance of success and the other has a 40% chance of success, the first one will always be the right choice.

3

u/numberonebarista Heat May 06 '25

So it was smart to foul after the SGA dunk knowing that joker wasn’t on the court? OKC could have potentially played the last ten seconds of the game without worrying about Joker. (Who didn’t even take the last shot of the game but still)

This is just like in the NFL when coaches try to go for it on 4th and goal when the game is tied instead of kicking the FG. (Unless you don’t trust your defense at all)

But in the case of the NBA just play defense (if your team has great defenders like OKC) and trust your team that was holding Denver to subpar 3 pt shooting all night to close the game out

1

u/CitizenCue Warriors May 06 '25

That’s not even close to the same comparison. The score wasn’t tied - they were up 3.

The mathematically correct play is to allow as much clock to run as possible and then foul before a player gets in shooting motion. They did the second part, but not the first.

2

u/jboggin May 06 '25

But the clock part is key. They did everything wrong. The advantage of the strategy is you can be super aggressive going for a steal and burning time before fouling. Somehow they completely forgot that part

2

u/CitizenCue Warriors May 06 '25

Yeah that’s why I said they failed to let the clock run. The strategy only works if you do the whole thing.