Spurs luck out against Celtics when they don’t foul up 3 with 5 seconds to go and on defense

After posting about the Hostra-Monmouth D-1 college basketball game when the Monmouth team did not box out all the Hostra players especially the 3 outside the 3 point line when they fouled Hostra with 5 seconds to go in regulation. Remember, they let the Hostra team tap the ball on the missed 2nd foul shot after making the first half of the 2 shot foul to a wide open 3 point shooter who won the game by draining the 3.

As I stated in that post, it was the first time I had ever seen or heard about a team losing when they fouled in this situation. The situation up 3 with under 7 seconds to go and they do what they should they foul.

Go to my previous BLOG on this thread for the complete details of the Hostra-Monmouth game. It is directly below this blog.

Just a few hours since I posted that story, the San Antonio Spurs are up 3 with 5 seconds to go and do not foul as they allowed the Boston Celtics to get off a tying 3 point attempt from the corner that went in an out for the tie.

The Spurs where darn lucky that the shot did not go in as it would have given the Celtics momentum going into overtime if they had made the 3.

I knew that Spurs would not foul in this situation because the Spurs Coach “POP” Popovich has publicly stated in interviews that he does not believe in this and so much so it cost the Spurs an NBA championship as in the sixth game several years ago in the championship series against the Miami Heat and after the game was tied they lost in overtime to tie the series 3 games each.

Then they went on to lose the 7th game all because they did not foul when they should have in my opinion.

Popovich also failed to have his team foul in a couple of regular season games over the years that resulted in them giving up a game tying 3 by the doing wrong thing in many basketball experts opinions and did not foul. It was really just by pure luck that the Celtic shooter who had an open look at a 3 that would have tied the game and all because Popovich did not have the Spurs foul before the 3 point attempt.

Ironic, that I should post about the December 6th Hofstra-Monmouth situation and then the same situation arises 2 days later on toda,y December 8th, several hours after I posted the Hofstar-Monmuth situation several hours earlier today around 5:45pm. The Spurs not fouling happened 6 hours later at 11:45pm.

Unbelievable that Monmouth did the right thing and fouled and then lost because they didn’t defend the open 3 point shooter outside the 3 point arc on the intentionally missed 2nd foul shot. Then, my favorite NBA team, the San Antonio Spurs, do the wrong thing, in my opinion, and did not foul and lucked out a win because the Celtics had a 3 rim out at the buzzer.

Another ironic thing also happened. I posted on my Blog just a day or two ago entitled “The Boston Celtics becoming the San Antonio Spurs of the Eastern Conference” of the NBA.

It was a well played fundamentally sound basketball game that had basketball players playing basketball against each other as neither team relied on the pure athletic talents of their players. They both played the game from the shoulders up using their brains not just their bodies like the 28 other NBA teams do. What a pleasure it was to watch an NBA basketball game that was truly a pure basketball game relying on strong fundamentals, using their high basketball IQ’s to make great basketball decisions such as excellent shot selection, fewe turnovers and fewer fouls then the ordinary NBA game.

The Celtics had 14 turnovers in 48 minutes and the Spurs 13.

BOTH TEAMS SHOT OVER 45% FROM THE FLOOR. The Celtics were 38 for 83 while the Spurs were 38 for 81. Both teams took good shots.

The only negative was both teams shot poorly from the 3 point shots. The Celtics were 11 for 38 for 29% and the Spurs were for 27 for 29%.

The Spurs have to consider themselves lucky in this one. I wonder what Celtic coach Brad Stevens would have done if the situation was reversed. Would he have fouled or would he have not fouled?