Suns’ D’Antoni defends ‘no foul’ strategy

SAN ANTONIO - To foul, or not to foul. After three hours of classic basketball theater that featured three incredibly clutch 3-point shots — but only three lead changes — that was Sunday’s big question after the Suns were left searching for answers to yet another head-shaking loss to their perennial postseason nemesis.

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Suns coach Mike D’Antoni vacillated between playful and annoyed with fans and media who questioned his decision to defend rather than foul before Spurs center Tim Duncan’s clutch and improbable 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first overtime.

San Antonio went on to win 117-115 in two overtimes — a game the Spurs led for exactly 39 seconds amid the first 53 minutes.

With 12.6 seconds left — after Amaré Stoudemire fouled out after charging into ex-teammate Kurt Thomas — the Suns led 104-101 and had a foul to give before reaching the penalty. But the Suns chose to defend and successfully bottled up San Antonio shooters Michael Finley — who had tied the score with a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in regulation — and Tony Parker.

Instead of fouling Manu Ginobili, with the ball, the Suns left Duncan open, and the career 19 percent 3-point shooter nailed the trey and the Suns never led again.

“The people who are yelling have either never coached or they are a coach (TV analyst) without a job right now,” D’Antoni said. “It seems like every NBA team doesn’t foul (in that situation). And the reason for it is, as you look at the film, it’s just not that simple.”

D’Antoni pointed to the second overtime as an example. San Antonio led by three with 19.5 seconds left and had a foul to give. But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who also subscribes to the “no foul” theory, chose to defend the Suns.

Four seconds later, Steve Nash had tied the score with an off-balance 3-pointer.

“We threw the ball into Boris Diaw (a career 71 percent free-throw shooter), but I don’t see them fouling Boris,” D’Antoni said. “They’re doing the same thing we’re doing. Coaches just don’t do it.

“I’ve looked at it. God knows if there is a sure-fire way of winning the game, let’s do it. But I’ve been around the game long enough ... it just doesn’t work that way. I know there will be fans out there groaning. Let them go to the Y and work on it.

“We don’t try to be idiots and we’re watching the same thing you are ... except we’ve watched for about 40 years and hundreds of hours of tape, and we just don’t see it.”

D’Antoni said he didn’t want to get into a foul-shooting contest in the final seconds, where one missed Phoenix shot could give the Spurs a chance to win.

“Rather than that, I’m willing to take the gamble on Tim Duncan, who hasn’t made a 3-pointer in two years,” he said. “If it’s Ray Allen or Brent Barry, OK, foul the sucker, because they’re not missing. But it wasn’t.

“In the end he made it, so I should have fouled him. But I can probably go to 30,000 games where (a player misses). But if everybody doesn’t foul, there will be those games when somebody makes them.”

Ginobili, who made the game-winning shot in the second overtime, questioned D’Antoni’s decision, saying that fouling in such a situation is the rule in Europe.

But D’Antoni light-heartedly challenged that claim. “I played and coached in Europe for 21 years and we never fouled. You know who fouls? The Croatians and Serbs — they foul.

“For most players, it’s a nightmare. It’s not in their nature. And if anything goes wrong, people will ask ‘Why did you foul?’ There is no 100 percent right way. Some nights you’re going to get bit and we got bit.”