EOG: How to Extend a Game When Trailing

Okay.  You're coaching a game and your team is down 5 with 3 minutes left.  You have decided that it is time that your team starts extending the game.  How do you do this?  The next topic that needs to be covered is how to extend a game.

In order to start discussing this topic we need to break it down by offense and defense.

Offense: On the offensive end you need to be prepared to speed everything up.  You will want to make sure that you have your best players in their best positions and ready to run a quick hitting part of the offense or some quick hitting set plays in an effort to get your team back in the game.  Your team needs to be aware of the fact that this is the point of the game where they need to be super aggressive.  You want to take action towards the basket.  The reason for this is twofold:
  1. The other team will not want to foul you for fear of giving you an and 1 opportunity.
  2. Taking the ball to the basket increases your chances of getting fouled, stopping the clock and thus extending the game (note: if you are coaching in a league, tournament, or shootout which runs the clock on free throws, you may want to use timeouts to stop the clock while shooting free throws). 
Defense: On defense you have to keep track of the bonus situation.  When you first enter EOG mode you may instruct your players to be aggressive in trying to create turnovers if your team still has fouls to give.   If you foul you foul be aggressive.  If you sense the other team is a poor free throw shooting team you may want to put them on the line as early as possible.  Regardless of how good the opposition is shooting their free throws, you will need to foul them and get them to the line as quickly as possible if you are chasing the game and you are under at the 2 minute mark.  As a matter of fact, if your chasing the game and you have fouls to give, you need to make sure your team commits those fouls by the time you hit the 2 minute mark.  At the 2 minute mark, many leagues stop the clock on all whistles (if they don't make sure you use your timeout), so your opportunities to extend the game are there as long as the other team is in the bonus.  Also note that if you have a chance to substitute to avoid key players from collecting fouls then do so.

So there you have it.  This is how you should extend games that you are trailing in.

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