why did Doc tell Rondo to foul?

[Rafters17]

This has been driving me crazy since last night....  Celtics go for a 2 for 1 at the end of the game down one(WITH A TIMEOUT).  They would have had almost 5 seconds to get a basket, potentially for the win.  But instead Doc instructs Rondo to foul at half court with something like 17 seconds left. 

what gives?!

and why hasn't any one even mentioned it?  The announcers briefly questioned it right when it happened, but then dismissed it and said "Ill trust Doc's coaching strategy" never to mention it again.

Seems like a bonehead call to me.

[Chris]

He should have fouled immediately after the rebound.  They would have been in trouble if they let the clock run down, because the Hawks had a foul to give.  So, the C's would have gotten the ball back with about 4 seconds left, then the Hawks would have fouled them before they could get a shot, and they would have to inbound it a second time with 2-3 second left max. 

The smart play would have been to foul immediately when they missed the shot, but I don't think it registered with the players or coaches what the full situation was until right around when Rondo did give the foul.

This was a big mistake IMO.

[Fafnir]

The 76ers had a foul to give, thus five seconds would have been cut to perhaps 2 or 3 seconds. I haven't heard Doc comment on this but that is what the announcers hypothesized.

Initially I was furious at Rondo for fouling then I realized Doc was yelling for him to do it.

[KGs Knee]

In that situation, the only thing Doc did wrong was call for the foul about 10 seconds too late.

Make it miss, there would have been 3 to 4 seconds (5 if you're being generous).  Philly also had a foul to give.  That's barely enough time. If Philly made a three we're done.

Had to foul there, just should hve done it sooner.

[KGs Knee]

Also, it didn't really work out bad anyways.

After Philly made their 2 free throws we had the ball down 3 with 10 seconds left.  That is plenty of time.  Unfortunately KG got called for an offensive foul.  It was game over after that.  Even still, we ended up making two pointless 3's after that.

[D Dub]

would have rather seen the best D in the league try for a stop. 

there's a good chance we get the ball down only 1 with 5 seconds left.  Even with Philly's foul to give, do they risk taking it with 5 seconds left?  Could easily become a shooting foul that gives us the lead.

i just think Doc over thought it, made a mistake.  oh well, we move on. 

No way the Sixers beat us 3 straight, expect a tie series back in Boston for game 5. 

[nickagneta]

For all the grief Doc gets about losing games due to substitutions and rotations, which I think is complete bunk, this game was a game he could have won with good coaching and good execution on his team's part.

But he lost any chance of winning the game with this bonehead decision. If the decision wasn't to foul immediately after the miss, then foul again and leave tons of time on the clock for a play to hit a three pointer and leave time on the clock in case you missed and got a rebound, then the team should have played to stop the Sixers and go for a winning basket, regardless of whether the Sixers had a foul to give.

This decision didn't lose the game for the Celtics, as Pierce did have a wide open three to tie the game except for that bogus foul, but it didn't maximize their chances of winning which is Doc's job. He let the team down with that coaching move.

Then again, the team let him down with their pathetic shooting and offensive execution for the entire second and third quarters.

Of greater concern to me was what appeared to be a conscious decision of the coaching staff to take the ball out of Rondo's hands to start the second half and have the offense go through Pierce.  Rondo might have brought the ball up but just about every offensive possession went through Pierce to create or shoot.

Given how poorly he was playing, it was a bad decision that made a terrible offense even worse.

[lightspeed5]

4 seconds isnt enough to do anything with....

if they shoot a 3 with 5 ish seconds left in the game, thats not enough time

[Senninsage]

They actually pushed up and synchronized the shot and game clock. When rondo fouled, there was suppose to be 14 seconds left in the game, and 10 seconds left on the shot clock.

After he fouled, there was at least 4 less seconds left in the game than there should have been. There was less time left on the shot clock than there was in the game, but they messed with the clock and synchronized both, giving the Celtics far less time.

[fairweatherfan]

I think Doc was ok with not fouling til he realized the Sixers also had a foul to give, and could either

 - make a basket (up 3) and intentionally foul twice with less than 5 seconds left, forcing us to intentionally miss a FT when we suck at offensive rebounding, or
 
 - miss their shot (up 1) and intentionally foul once with less than 5 seconds left, forcing us into a very rushed shot for the win, or

 - miss their shot but get the rebound, forcing us to foul twice with under 5 seconds then somehow get a shot off with them still holding a foul to give

I think that's why he held off on ordering the foul for a few seconds - an assistant might've told him about the Sixers' foul situation. 

We still should've moved a lot faster on that if that was our strategy, though.