Wrong Basket in NBA Finals Game 6?

[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.

[Mark Padgett]

quote:

---

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.

---

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.

[hawk]

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.

[Gibby]

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