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Harbourside’s fourth-quarter engine runs on one impossible shot

Down eleven with six minutes left, the Herons ran the same action nine times. It worked eight.

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Down eleven with six minutes left, the Herons ran the same action nine times. It worked eight. The ninth was a foul, which also worked.

The action

A high hand-off on the left wing, a re-screen from the big, and a guard who has decided to shoot before he has the ball. The defence knows it is coming. Knowing has not helped anyone yet.

The release point on the eighth of nine: 29 feet, two defenders, no hesitation.

Why it keeps working

Because the re-screen arrives a beat later than the scouting report says, and the man guarding the big has to choose between the roll and the shooter with half a second to do it. He picks wrong roughly two times in three.

We know what they are running. We would like to be told what to do about it.

— Opposing assistant coach, after the game

The cost

Nine possessions, one player, thirty-one points. Harbourside are top of the league and their second-best scorer took four shots.

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