Where's the Defense, Jameer?

The talk of the past couple of days continues to be the coaching judgment and decisions of Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. Should he have fouled with 11 seconds to go and up by 3 points? Should he have substituted Rafer Alston who had an outstanding first half for Jameer Nelson who appeared to struggle at times in the fourth quarter?

My own personal philosophy is that you always foul when ahead by 3 points with less than 10 seconds. 11 seconds is kind of a stretch, but I probably would've fouled anyways. Would it have made the difference in the game? I think it could've gone either way, but the Magic were shooting their free-throws so poorly that I think at the end of the day, the Lakers probably still would have won.

Regardless of whether SVG had planned on fouling though, Jeff Van Gundy was absolutely right on the ABC broadcast, there is no excuse for Jameer Nelson giving Derek Fisher so much room to shoot the 3-pointer. As you can see, Fisher is already in his shooting pocket, and Nelson is at least 2 arms lengths away with his hands below the waist,



Would Alston made a difference? Perhaps. But again, it is unfathomable that you would give someone that much room to take the game-tying shot. Still, the bulk of the credit goes to Fisher, who struggled for most of the playoffs, but has lived up to his reputation for hitting big shots when it counts the most. He gave a great post-game interview where he talked about trust -- the trust he has earned between Phil Jackson and himself.