In the NBA, are the teams supposed to shoot at the basket closest to their bench in the second half - or is it different from NCAA/HS?

If so, they're going the wrong way tonight.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Geneva">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mark Dexter:
In the NBA, are the teams supposed to shoot at the basket closest to their bench in the second half - or is it different from NCAA/HS?

If so, they're going the wrong way tonight.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I've noticed that it's just the opposite of NF. I haven't checked the NBA rules site lately, but it's been this way for a long time. I guess coaches want their defense in front of them at the end of the game.

Don't recall if it was the NBC folk or Chick Hearn (the Laker's announcer) who recently explained that the visiting coach gets to choose which end for which half -- probably a rule to prevent home teams from creating a more favorable basket for the second half. Whoever the announcer was suggested that coaches are more interested in being able to yell at their defenses than their offenses, and *might* have suggested that this had changed over time.

Rule 4-section 1-a in the NBA rule book states "the visiting team has the choice of baskets for the first half.