Throw in violation, or legal play?

[letemplay]

So the defense would have to wait until they were sure the ball had broken the plane before reaching for it? How can they judge that (successfully)? Suppose the pass is not to an out of bounds teammate, but a cross court pass to an inbounds player in opposite corner? You are going to expect a defender, with his team down by one, not to reach for that ball? I'm not talking about the onball defender, but probably a secondary defender in a press setup somewhere closer to receiver. There would be a point somewhere in that pass that the ball crosses the plane, but probably hard for a player to know in heat of battle. If there is no out of bounds receiver on this play, we all would assume that at any point after release of ball the defense could legally reach for it, correct? I'm kinda playing devils advocate here, realizing the OP was referencing an obvious pass between two out of bounds teammates and the defender most likely even crosses the plane himself to grab the ball. Here I have the obvious T, but think we have to be careful regarding exactly where the pass is headed, and at what point it is touched.