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[QUOTE="Orangeman, post: 1219947, member: 972"]
I think you need to rewatch the play.  There were two of our guards "guarding" their point.  The foul line was wide open.  They passed him the ball.  Christmas could not jump up or else they'd have a wide open dunk by the guy on the block.  One of our wings (in this case G or McC had to step in to guard the wide-open guy at the foul line which would have left one of their shooters wide open on the wing, which is what happened).  They had a 4-3 behind our guards, that's indisputable.  The gamble here is that the guy we directed to be their new ball-handler at the foul-line makes an error because he's not the guard.  He didn't, he recognized the rotation and fed the shooter (it ain't THAT hard).

I assume you're not suggesting they should have given up a wide-open 12 footer to the guy at the key?  Or left Rak on a 2-1 in the paint?

You do raise an interesting point though…The zone defense by design puts players in difficult decisions.  By far the most infuriating thing for me today was watching Christmas AND McCullough flying out to a 3 point shooter in the corner at the same time in the first half…both late, both ineffective, both arguably doing "the right thing" and the wrong thing at once.

But, back to the original point…I disagree that this play was McCullough's fault.  He had to make a split second decision on a 2-1 and he chose the foul-line over the 3-point shooter.  If he doesn't guard the foul-line, conceptually they have a 2-1 with Rak going to the basket late in the shot clock.
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