Late game - stop the clock fouls

[ilyazhito]

Two words: shot clock. That cuts down on the amount of late-game fouls, simply because both teams have to play offense and defense until the shot clock turns off on the last reset before the period ends.

One possibility is that the leading team scores enough points to put the game out of reach while the shot clock is on, making last-ditch fouls irrelevant. The other is that the trailing team scores and forces enough stops to keep the game a one-possession contest, and/or takes the lead before the shot clock turns off. Only if there is a fringe scenario (2 possession game with ~30 seconds left) would fouls really happen in a shot clock game. In my experience, with no shot clock, fouling starts as early as 3 minutes left in the game (more typically at 2 minutes), but with a shot clock, fouling starts with 1 minute left at the earliest (more typically fouls start occurring around the 30-second mark (usually the final time the shot clock gets reset while still staying on), so the amount of end-of-game fouls is less with a shot clock.

Therefore, a shot clock could render this discussion moot, as fewer stop-the-clock fouls tend to happen in shot-clock games.