Another Inquiry

[Tebo2526]

Once again, help me with this one out of curiosity. Kind of hard to explain but here goes:

Ball inbounded late in game after made basket and timeout under opponents basket. Ball is rolled in bounds as is done so many times in order preserve clock. Player in bounds walking beside the rolling ball reaches down and gives it an added little push-roll to help it along a little further for some reason as the clock correctly started when it was first touched. He then picks it up and takes off with it. Can you do that? Excuse my ignorance but just curious.