This ‘Smart’ Play Is Ruining Games (And The NBA Needs To Fix It)

Finch and Anthony Edwards #5 of the Minnesota Timberwolves argue with referee Zach Zarba #15 against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second quarter in Game Four of the Western Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Target Center on May 26, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)Less

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After three games of blowouts, we finally got the prize fight we were looking for in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder looked evenly matched, with both teams going blow-for-blow for nearly 48 minutes. And after a missed free throw by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gave the Timberwolves possession of the ball down three points with nine seconds to go, it seemed like we were primed for a grand finale.

But alas, the Thunder deployed a tactic that has become popular across the league – intentionally fouling up three points to avoid giving their opponent a chance to launch a potential game-tying shot – which turned what should have been an incredible ending into a snooze fest.

Why Teams Foul Up Three Points

Don’t get it twisted. While this strategy is annoying, it certainly isn’t a foolish one.

Over the last decade-plus, the league has experienced a massive boom in 3-point rate. Today’s NBA landscape is littered with more shooters than ever, and many of them are prepared to take those high-value looks with the game on the line.

Not only are there more good shooters than ever before, but 3-point shooting is also an incredibly volatile stat – one that is largely agnostic to the defensive quality of your opponent (this is the whole idea behind shooting luck).

This season, the league average on a 3-point shot is 36%. In theory, that means that a team has a 36% chance of hitting a game-tying jumper when down three in the closing seconds of a game (this is without factoring in offensive rebounds).

What is better? Hoping your opponent misses a 36% 3-pointer that your defense has very little control over or intentionally fouling and then daring them to hit their first free throw, miss the second one on purpose, secure the offensive rebound, and convert a contested putback?

In the latter instance, four different variables need to go wrong in order for the other team to even the score. Meanwhile, in the first scenario, it only takes one bad bounce.

Now, there are times when this strategy backfires. Just last round, the Thunder started intentionally fouling too early, and as a result, they gave away a Game 1 matchup against the Denver Nuggets that was firmly in their grasp.

Still, in most instances, fouling up three is the right play.

The NBA Needs To Step In And Fix This Problem

In 2021, ProPublica published an article chronicling how owners of professional sports teams use their franchises to avoid millions of dollars in taxes each year. One of the examples cited in the piece mentioned how Steve Ballmer, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, paid a third of the rate LeBron James did in taxes in 2020-21, despite making five times as much as the future Hall of Famer.

This doesn’t seem fair. But at the end of the day, can you really fault Ballmer? He is just using the current economic tax structure to his advantage. If we want him to stop, it is up to our government to revise its rules to deter this sort of behavior.

NBA coaches are no different than these billionaires. Their goal isn’t to uphold the integrity of the sport. It is to win as many games as they possibly can, and by fouling up three, they give themselves a better chance of doing so.

That means that it is up to the league front office to come up with a solution to this epidemic. They need to come up with a way to stop this phenomenon from ruining the end of what should be classic playoff games.

How Can The NBA Fix This Problem?

Whether it be outlawing illegal defense or penalizing teams for transition take fouls, we’ve seen in the past that the league is capable of instituting changes to improve the quality of their product. But what would be an adequate fix for this situation?

The best rule change I’ve seen proposed on the subject thus far came from NBA Analyst Nate Duncan. His idea is included in the tweet below:

By adopting this policy, the league would immediately change the calculations that come with fouling up three. If the intentionally fouled player hits their free throw, the trailing team would now get the ball back with the chance to tie the game with a two or take the lead with a triple. Fouling up three isn’t so appealing now, is it?

Even if they don’t implement this exact rule, the NBA needs to do something because this coaching hack is diminishing the value of their precious stock.