« Reply #6 on: December 08, 2016, 06:45:38 AM »
Down 3 with 20 seconds to go and Houston has a fresh shot clock, Mike and Scal are saying over and over again "Gotta foul. Gotta foul." The balls gets to Harden. Avery and Marcus surround him. "Gotta foul." And what happens? Neither player fouls like everyone knows you're supposed to but they envelope Harden in a way that frustrates him and Marcus puts himself in position to take the hit.
Had it gone on for another second, they definitely would've had to foul but the presence of mind of these two great defenders to surround Harden and make him nervous enough to make a mistake was great. Not many teams have guys who can create that situation.
You also go for steal until 10 seconds are left. That was the plan.. it worked.
It was a superb play by Smart, yet typical of the little things he does every game that don't show up on the stat sheet.
I think it's a play that a lot of teams either just foul straight away or they mess up and wait too long. It's a little thing that gets lost because the team couldn't close out the game but I think it's important and a nice sign of things to come.
Logged
1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2008