NBA teams almost never use real strategy

[fearless]

If I were coaching a game and the opposing team was in the situation the Warriors were in (7 players total, 3 in foul trouble at halftime), I'd tell my players to attack the rim and do post-up plays every time.

You can easily end up playing 4 against 5 in a situation like that.

The Warriors ended the game with 5 players with 4 fouls and one player with 5 fouls. If the Jazz were using any kind of real strategy several of those guys would have fouled out!

What did they do instead? They shot 9 shots (out of 29 total) in the key in the second half.

That game should have been 4 on 5 (or better) for a long time.

A typical high school coach uses better strategy than NBA coaches.

What's really sad about this is that before I made my second half bet on the Jazz I knew in my heart that they wouldn't go for the kill like I described in the original post. What I didn't expect was that they would seemingly try to avoid fouling Warriors players out (it sure looks that way when you shoot 20 of 29 shots from the outside).

Here's my thoughts on why NBA teams almost never use real strategy like I described in the original post:

1. The NBA is a big fraternity, everybody's friends. Why would Sloan want to embarrass Nelson by forcing him to play 4 on 5 against the Jazz? It's not a gentlemanly thing to do but it cost the Jazz the game. Good relationships may be more important than the game sometimes. These guys are human and it's understandable but it's terrible for fans.

2. The NBA is a business that always considers the bottom line first. If the Jazz had fouled three guys out and got to play 4 on 5, they may have gotten a win but it may have cost the league some credibility.

Any thoughts on this...

[The_Kid]

I don't know about your points but I was wondering the same exact thing. Sloan should want to win no matter what the situation is. He's fighting for playoff positioning so I doubt your #1 point is valid enough. The fans do pay good money to see a good game but they also want to go home happy and I'm sure they weren't after watching the Warriors dominate their home team in Salt Lake. I never saw the Jazz attack the rim or run any pick and rolls with Williams and Boozer. That's their bread and butter too! Using that play easily could have fouled out one of their big men. If Williams posted up Watson, they probably could have fouled him out too. Nellie did keep rotating his players but I still think the Jazz could have made a better effort to attack the basket. The Warriors seemed to be doing it all the time so I don't know why they couldn't. It was just sickening to watch because the Jazz looked like they were sleepwalking out there. I took them in the 2H thinking they'd turn it on and run the Warriors out of the building but the run never came. They played with no energy and when they wanted to turn it on, it was too late. I don't know about you but it seemed like the refs were being generous to the Warriors in terms of foul calls. I was watching the game and I could count at least 3 or 4 times where the refs called something late on the Jazz. There was also a flagrant foul called that wasn't even flagrant. That's probably beside the point but Watson and Kurz played the game of their lives. I have to give them credit for that.

[fearless]

I don't know about your points but I was wondering the same exact thing. Sloan should want to win no matter what the situation is. He's fighting for playoff positioning so I doubt your #1 point is valid enough. The fans do pay good money to see a good game but they also want to go home happy and I'm sure they weren't after watching the Warriors dominate their home team in Salt Lake. I never saw the Jazz attack the rim or run any pick and rolls with Williams and Boozer. That's their bread and butter too! Using that play easily could have fouled out one of their big men. If Williams posted up Watson, they probably could have fouled him out too. Nellie did keep rotating his players but I still think the Jazz could have made a better effort to attack the basket. The Warriors seemed to be doing it all the time so I don't know why they couldn't. It was just sickening to watch because the Jazz looked like they were sleepwalking out there. I took them in the 2H thinking they'd turn it on and run the Warriors out of the building but the run never came. They played with no energy and when they wanted to turn it on, it was too late. I don't know about you but it seemed like the refs were being generous to the Warriors in terms of foul calls. I was watching the game and I could count at least 3 or 4 times where the refs called something late on the Jazz. There was also a flagrant foul called that wasn't even flagrant. That's probably beside the point but Watson and Kurz played the game of their lives. I have to give them credit for that.

Another possibility is that when you participate in as many games as these players and coaches do, everything just becomes automatic. Is it possible that the Jazz were just using the same old game plan out of habit and not even considering the situation the Warriors were in? I think it's possible.

[dennisback]

hm they didnt want the lakers let them win @ LA. Espn idiots said that lakers will give jazz win incase they could move up but now they want to compete with lakers and fight for that win thats why they lost vs. warriors.

[fearless]

hm they didnt want the lakers let them win @ LA. Espn idiots said that lakers will give jazz win incase they could move up but now they want to compete with lakers and fight for that win thats why they lost vs. warriors.

This is something that I considered. The Jazz may not have wanted to face the indignity of the Lakers giving them the game like that.

[Razz_Donkey]

This was an odd game to watch. Jazz suffered by playing catch up. They were down 17 entering the fourth, and tried to hard to shoot three's (only 5 of 19) in order to make up ground instead of attacking the paint. They got the benefit of the doubt in the 4th at the hands of the refs, but failed to pursue it. The biggest factor here was the intangible lack of support from their home crowd. The place was dead silent as all seemed to be in shock. This lack of energy from the fans may have had a negative effect on the Jazz down the stretch, not too mention the negative energy coming off a road trip that resulted in a 1-4 record. I doubt there was a conscious effort to throw the game, rather it was a culmination of several negative events during the game which lead to their loss.

[HoulihansTX]

You cant foul everybody out. When youre down to 5 players and anybody has six fouls that is left, you receive technical fouls instead of regular fouls.

[NBA Hero]

they should commit hard foul and get technicals from both size to further lessen the players on each team. should have been easy win