To Guard Or Not To Guard?

Interesting debate about the Blazers’ game-winning lob against the Spurs:

Do you or don’t you guard the guy inbounding the ball? In case you’ve been in a coma the past 24 hours, here’s what happened.

So, should the Spurs have guarded Miller? Or should they have camped Antonio McDyess in the lane to protect against the lob? I think the answer was provided by Miller during postgame interviews: “I didn’t see the rim, I didn’t see him (Batum) spin. I just anticipated.”

Miller said he couldn’t see anything because McDyess was in front of him. He just made an extraordinary pass.

I used to be the in-bounds passer for my high school team, and I hated when the opponent would guard me. It was much easier to make a good pass when the defender was trying to cut off the passing lanes, even though I had four teammates covered by five guys.

So there you have it. Clearly, the lessons of mid-1980s high school basketball in Oregon are applicable to today’s NBA.