–If you want to know why teams don’t just “run their offense” in a game’s final moments or last couple of possessions, watch the end of the Clippers-Jazz Game 1. Both of the game’s biggest buckets — Chris Paul’s little jumper and Joe Johnson’s game-winner — were absolute instances of getting the ball in a guy’s hands and letting him go one-on-one.
This is often referred to as “hero ball,” a term I despise with the intensity of a thousand suns, yet that’s a topic for another time.
The reason it’s not as simple as “running your offense” down the stretch of a game is because when you run your offense you don’t know who’s going to have the ball at the critical juncture that a play needs to be made. You don’t want a non-shooter with the ball late in the shot clock … but that’s the obvious point.
If you run you’re offense, you’re not going to know who’s going to shoot the ball or when. You put the ball into your best player’s hands and allow him to make a decision, then you already know the answer to both of those questions.
Matt Steinmetz 