It’s double overtime in the NBA finals. There’s one second on the clock, your team is down by 1, you have possession under your own basket with no time-outs. What is your best play?

That’s the situation the Phoenix Suns faced in 1976 against the Boston Celtics. In what has been called the greatest basketball game, a player on the Phoenix Suns came up with arguably the smartest decision in a basketball game, a strategic move worthy of a case study in game theory.

The analysis is after the jump. You can watch a video of the last two possessions of the game. The part with 1 second starts at 5:50.

1976 NBA Finals Double Overtime

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"All will be well if you use your mind for your decisions, and mind only your decisions." Since 2007, I have devoted my life to sharing the joy of game theory and mathematics. MindYourDecisions now has over 1,000 free articles with no ads thanks to community support! Help out and get early access to posts with a pledge on Patreon. .

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Considering your options

Typically sports teams do not have time to deliberate during a game. In this case something unusual happened. Boston fans thought the game was over and they stormed the court in celebration. The referees, however, decided the game was not over and put 1 second back on the clock. It took several minutes to clear fans from the court, and this allowed the Phoenix Suns time to develop a plan.

The Suns had little hope. While full-court buzzer beaters do happen, they are essentially “miracle” plays that coincide with a defensive breakdown of the opposing team. The coach might have been drawing up a play to get off a 60 or 80 foot jumper.

Then the Phoenix Suns player Paul Westphal came up with a better idea.

Strategic technical foul

If the Suns had played out the final possession, they almost certainly would have missed the shot and lost the game. Westphal came up with the idea: the Suns would deliberately call a time-out they didn’t have to incur a technical foul!

The penalty gave Boston a free throw, which they made and put the Suns down by 2. But being down by 1 or 2 points did not really matter–the Suns had to make a 2-point shot to avoid losing (there were no three-pointers in 1976).

The point of the strategy is the Suns then got the ball at midcourt. It is much, much easier to draw up a play from midcourt with one second than to try and heave a 60 or 80 foot shot across the entire court. And sure enough, the Suns inbounded to Garfield Heard who sank an 18-foot basket to tie the game, forcing the game into a third overtime.

Game theory lessons

The Suns move illustrates several concepts of strategic thinking. First, winning moves are not always obvious. The strategy to use a timeout deliberately was available for any team. But coaches rarely have the time to think outside the box. They have to focus on major decisions like choosing the starting lineup, managing foul trouble, and using time-outs effectively. In fact, if the Suns had an extra timeout, they could have just used that to advance the ball to midcourt. It was only in desperation, with the fortuitous event of fans storming the court, that gave extra time to come up with this smart move.

Second, exploiting loopholes is a short-term strategy. The next year the NBA changed the rule specifically to avoid a repeat: teams could not advance the ball to midcourt with a technical foul. Since flagrantly exploiting loopholes often leads to rule changes, you should be sure to utilize it only in dire circumstances. The Suns were smart to use the strategy during a Finals series in a situation where it really mattered.

Although the Suns ultimately lost the game and the series, they deserve credit for thinking strategically and making perhaps the smartest move ever in an NBA Finals. They won’t get a championship ring for that, but they deserve to be rewarded as a legendary example of game theory.